Firm Posture & In-House Response
13. UK introduces State Threats Bill with designation offences for hostile foreign-state proxy bodies
The UK National Security (State Threats) Bill creates a Home Secretary power to designate bodies engaged in foreign power threat activity, with offences for supporting, assisting or obtaining material benefits from designated bodies and penalties of up to 14 years.
BY GEOPOLITICS DESK · JUNE 11, 2026 · 1 MIN READ
The UK National Security (State Threats) Bill creates a Home Secretary power to designate bodies engaged in foreign power threat activity, with offences for supporting, assisting or obtaining material benefits from designated bodies and penalties of up to 14 years. The offences apply extraterritorially to UK persons and Crown personnel, and businesses will be encouraged to submit Defence Against Money Laundering and Suspicious Activity Reports when at risk of dealing with property linked to designated bodies.
For law firms and in-house teams, this sits adjacent to sanctions but is not identical to SAMLA sanctions: client onboarding, hostile-state proxy analysis, proceeds/property controls and NCA reporting workflows will need a separate decision tree.