Editing Espionage (section)

=== Espionage law in the UK ===
From ancient times, the penalty for espionage in many countries was execution. This was true right up until the era of [[World War II]]; for example, [[Josef Jakobs]] was a Nazi spy who parachuted into Great Britain in 1941 and was executed for espionage.

Espionage is illegal in the UK under the [[National Security Act 2023]], which repealed prior Official Secrets Acts and creates three separate offences for espionage. A person is liable to be imprisoned for life for committing an offence under Section 1 of the Act, or 14 years for an offence under Sections 2 and 3

==== Government intelligence law and its distinction from espionage ====
Government intelligence is very much distinct from espionage, and is not illegal in the UK, providing that the organisations of individuals are registered, often with the ICO, and are acting within the restrictions of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA). 'Intelligence' is considered legally as "information of all sorts gathered by a government or organisation to guide its decisions. It includes information that may be both public and private, obtained from much different public or secret sources. It could consist entirely of information from either publicly available or secret sources, or be a combination of the two."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.mi5.gov.uk/home/the-threats/espionage/what-is-espionage.html |title=What is espionage? |website=MI5 - the Security Service |access-date=2013-08-16 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131101174455/https://www.mi5.gov.uk/home/the-threats/espionage/what-is-espionage.html |archive-date=2013-11-01 }}</ref>

However, espionage and intelligence can be linked. According to the MI5 website, "foreign intelligence officers acting in the UK under diplomatic cover may enjoy immunity from prosecution. Such persons can only be tried for spying (or, indeed, any criminal offence) if diplomatic immunity is waived beforehand. Those officers operating without diplomatic cover have no such immunity from prosecution".

There are also laws surrounding government and organisational intelligence and surveillance. Generally, the body involved should be issued with some form of warrant or permission from the government and should be enacting their procedures in the interest of protecting national security or the safety of public citizens. Those carrying out intelligence missions should act within not only RIPA but also the Data Protection Act and Human Rights Act. However, there are spy equipment laws and legal requirements around intelligence methods that vary for each form of intelligence enacted.