E-petition debate: Call a public inquiry into Russian influence on UK politics and democracy

E-petition 744215

E-petition 744215 calls for a public inquiry into Russian influence on UK politics and democracy.

The petition is open until 10 May 2026. At the time of writing, it had over 114,000 signatures.

The UK Government’s response was published on the petition’s page on 15 January 2026. It said:

Russian interference threats to the UK will be examined as part of the Independent Review of Foreign Financial Interference. Review findings will be presented to the House for scrutiny in late March.

The government went on to say the conclusions will feed into “reforms to protect our elections from foreign interference, to be set out in a forthcoming elections and democracy bill.” It also said it would support the government’s Counter Political Interference and Espionage Action Plan, which aims to make UK politics a harder target for foreign threat actors.

Philip Rycroft, a former senior civil servant, will lead the independent review.

At the time of writing no date has been set for the introduction of an elections bill.

Is the review a public inquiry?

No.

Government ministers can set up public inquiries to respond to events of major public concern or to consider controversial public policy issues. They can be statutory or non-statutory. Once a minister has chosen who will chair an inquiry they will decide, in consultation with the chair, what the terms of reference for the inquiry will be. Once an inquiry is established the chair is responsible for interpreting the terms of reference themselves and acts independently of government.

Broadly speaking, statutory inquiries have greater powers than non-statutory inquiries, but there are also stricter rules about how they function. For example, the chairs of statutory inquiries can compel witnesses. Statutory inquiries are governed by the Inquiries Act 2005 and the Inquiry Rules 2006. There are no equivalent rules governing non-statutory inquiries and chairs of non-statutory inquiries cannot compel witnesses to give evidence.

Ministers can also establish reviews or investigations with less of a formal structure. These include independent reviews into areas of public policy, which are generally led by one or more independent experts. The Rycroft review is this sort of review.

The differences between types of inquiries and reviews are explained in more detail in the Library briefings Government reviews and investigations and Public inquiries.

Recent debate in the House of Commons

A debate on the impact of foreign interference on security, trade and democracy took place in the House of Commons Chamber on Thursday 11 December 2025.

The Library briefing for that debate included the following information.

What is the concern about foreign interference?

In May 2024, Parliament’s Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy said in a letter to then Prime Minister Rishi Sunak that “in recent years, the UK has experienced a pattern of attempted foreign interference from countries such as China, Russia, Iran and North Korea”.

In June 2025, the government published a Strategic Defence Review, which said “the UK is already under daily attack, with aggressive acts—from espionage to cyber-attack and information manipulation—causing harm to society and the economy”.

The review called Russia “an immediate and pressing threat” and said it would continue to pose “an enduring threat in key areas”, which include cyberspace and information operations.

The review labelled China as a “sophisticated and persistent challenge”, saying it is “likely to continue seeking advantage through espionage and cyber-attacks, and through securing cutting-edge Intellectual Property through legitimate and illegitimate means”.

It also named Iran a “regional disruptor”, saying it continued “to pose a direct threat to the UK in cyberspace”.

What steps has the government taken?

Recent legislation and government initiatives to oppose foreign interference, relevant select committee inquiries, and the threats posed by China, Iran and Russia are listed below.

The government’s June 2025 National Security Strategy said “the openness of our democracy and economy are national strengths. Therefore, it is vital to keep ahead of those who seek to exploit them with robust defences”. The strategy said the government is “taking steps to make our country a harder operating environment for hostile actors”.

Actions by the UK Government to combat foreign interference over the last several years include:

• passing theCounter-Terrorism and Border Security Act 2019, which introduced powers to stop, question, search and detain people entering and exiting the UK to determine whether they have been engaged in hostile state activity
• passing theNational Security and Investment Act 2021, which introduced new powers for the government to investigate and intervene in company mergers, acquisitions and other deals that could threaten the UK’s national security
• setting up a Defending Democracy Taskforcein 2022 to “protect the democratic integrity of the UK from threats of foreign interference”
• passing theElections Act 2022 with measures aimed at tightening the rules around preventing foreign money influencing UK elections
• passing theNational Security Act 2023, which introduced new offences in relation to foreign interference and gave the government powers to introduce a Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS), as well as enhancing existing prohibitions on foreign finance and influence affecting UK elections and party finance
• inJanuary 2022 and November 2025, MI5 issuing interference alerts to warn MPs, peers, and parliamentary staff of alleged Chinese agents’ attempts to infiltrate Parliament and to recruit people with access to sensitive information about the British state
• passingthe Procurement Act 2023, which introduced enhanced powers for related public bodies to exclude certain suppliers from procurement on national security grounds and to terminate contracts where necessary
• commissioning the Independent Reviewer of State Threat Legislation to conduct a review,published in May 2025, of what parts of the UK’s counter-terrorism framework could be applied to modern-day state threats
• commissioning a reviewin May 2025, by the Defending Democracy Taskforce into the government’s response to transnational repression in the UK
• bringing FIRS into forcein July 2025, and placing Iran and Russia and key organisation from those countries on the “enhanced tier” of the scheme, making it an offence for anyone to carry out any activity (outside a narrowly scoped group of exempted activities) in the UK at their direction without it being registered
• introducing theCyber Security and Resilience (Network and Information Systems) Bill in November 2025, which would require organisations in critical sectors to further protect their IT systems
• publishing apolicy paper in July 2025 with proposals to tighten the rules on political donations.

Other Library briefings

Countering Russian influence in the UK

Note, there is no PDF associated with this briefing