Lord Hanson of Flint, the Home Office, has provided the following answer to your written parliamentary question (HL3049):
Question by Lord Alton of Liverpool:
To ask His Majesty’s Government what consideration they have given to designating China as a specific foreign power in the enhanced tier of the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme. (HL3049)
Tabled on: 02 December 2024
Answer:
Lord Hanson of Flint:
The Government is working at pace to implement the scheme. All further announcements will be made in the normal way in due course. We have recruited a case management team and are developing the IT arrangements. We expect the scheme to commence 2025. It would not be appropriate to comment on the scope of any specifications under the enhanced tier at this stage. The proposed foreign entities to be included on the enhanced tier will be subject to formal debate and agreement by both Houses of Parliament in due course.
Date and time of answer: 16 Dec 2024 at 17:42.
===
My Lords, I thank the noble Lord for the work he did on the Intelligence and Security Committee. Will he reiterate to your Lordships’ House the findings of that committee that 40,000 members of the United Front Work Department had penetrated
“every sector of the United Kingdom economy”,
including our universities? Why then does the Prime Minister still refuse to officially declare China a threat, while Ken McCallum as head of MI5 says that infiltration is on an “epic scale”?
The Prime Minister is taking an approach that is in the interests of the United Kingdom. That approach is about challenging where necessary and referring strongly when we have security information, as we have done this week, but looking at where there are areas of potential co-operation, because we cannot avoid the fact that China is a major player in a number of areas of influence and we have to look at how we can co-operate with it on areas where we have mutual interests. However, I take the point. The noble Lord knows, because it is in the report that I was party to with my noble friend Lord Beamish, that a significant number of states have offensive opportunities towards the United Kingdom. We need to take cognisance of that. That is what the security services are doing each and every day. When information comes to light, we will take action. In the next few months, we will complete the first scheme and bring proposals to both Houses to meet those threats.
===
My Lords, following the very helpful reply which the Minister gave during the earlier stages of the Great British Energy Bill on the subject of slave labour, can he say what further consideration he has given to the dilemma of purchasing solar panels that have been made in a state accused by the House of Commons of committing genocide and using slave labour in the Muslim areas of Xinjiang?
My Lords, as ever, I am very grateful to the noble Lord for raising these very serious matters and particularly the plight of the Uighurs in Xinjiang province, which we have debated. He knows from my response in the Great British Energy Bill that we are looking at this very carefully. He is right that there is a tension, and clearly many of our solar panels come from China with all the attendant issues that this involves. But we have established the Solar Taskforce to look into the issue of supply chain, and we will be taking very seriously the points that the noble Lord has raised.
