UK to introduce life sentence for espionage: Report

Under the new legislation, aimed at modernising the country's outmoded counterintelligence rules, the United Kingdom has announced the maximum penalty for espionage will be increased from 14 years to life, said Home Secretary Priti Patel, according to The Telegraph. In an article for the Telegraph, Patel introduced the primary priorities of the UK government's Queen's Speech legislative program. "The Bill will, for the first time, make it an offence to be a covert foreign spy on our soil. We will introduce a new foreign interference offence, to disrupt illegitimate interference activity conducted for, or on behalf of, foreign states. A new sabotage offence will be brought in to more effectively respond to state-backed attacks on the sites, data or infrastructure critical to the UK's safety and interests," wrote Patel. One of the key features of the new UK legislation, according to The Telegraph, is that espionage will be punishable by life in jail. Also Read | Delhi HC gives split verdict on marital rape, matter referred to higher bench Previously, UK counterintelligence rules were intended to "counter the threat of German spies around the time of the First World War." However, the new legislation should address "even more sophisticated and varied" forms of foreign espionage that have emerged in recent years. Furthermore, Patel claimed that the new legislation will address cyberintelligence as well as other uses of contemporary technology with the intent to harm the United Kingdom. Also Read | End of an era! Apple discontinues iPod after 20 years -PTC News