This Bill does exactly that. We have been talking about FIRS over the last couple of days—the foreign influence registration scheme. There are different tiers specified in that. There is no doubt that this Bill acknowledges where our principal threats come from. Other countries, unfortunately, are also sometimes used as proxies. That is another discussion we have had at considerable length from this Dispatch Box with various noble Lords who have raised that point. I think it has covered very widely exactly what the nature of the threats are and where they come from.

Amendment 116 would duplicate existing work being carried forward by the Government to ensure that the threat posed by disinformation spread by foreign states is monitored effectively. The noble Lord, Lord Wallace, asked me for more detail on the Defending Democracy Taskforce, and I am happy to supply it. As he pointed out, it was announced in November 2022. As it has become apparent that the threats to our democratic institutions and wider society are growing, the taskforce’s mission statement is to reduce the risk to the UK’s democratic processes, institutions and society and to ensure that they are secure and resilient to threats of foreign interference. It will work across government and with Parliament, the UK intelligence community, the devolved Administrations, local authorities and the private sector on the full range of threats facing our democratic institutions. The work of the taskforce will report to the National Security Council and more details will be set out in the update of the integrated review. I have no more details at this point.

That leads nicely to the work of the National Security Council, which the noble Lord, Lord Purvis, asked me about. That is the main forum for a collective discussion of the Government’s objectives for national security and about how best to deliver them in the current financial climate. The key purpose of the council is to ensure that Ministers consider national security in the round and in a strategic way, and it is chaired by the Prime Minister. In answer to one of the questions from the noble Lord, Lord Coaker, the National Security Council co-ordinates His Majesty’s Government’s work on national security policy. Unfortunately, as the noble Lord knows—this answer will disappoint him—the convention is not to speak about the working of Cabinet committees, for which I apologise; I would like to go further, but I cannot.

The Government have robust systems in place to protect UK democracy, bringing together government, civil society and private sector organisations to monitor and respond to attempted interference, in whatever form, to ensure our democracy stays open and vibrant. The Government have amended the Bill in the other place to make the foreign interference offence a priority offence in the Online Safety Bill. That will require companies in scope of the regime to conduct regular risk assessments of the presence of content which constitutes an offence, and to put in place proportionate systems and processes to mitigate the possibility of users encountering that content. That will include disinformation spread by foreign states that is intended to undermine our democratic, political and legal processes. Furthermore, the Online Safety Bill’s advisory committee on disinformation and misinformation will provide cross-sector expertise on disinformation and misinformation and provide advice to ofcom about how providers of regulated services should deal with disinformation and misinformation.

Finally, I will discuss the Electoral Commission recommendation, as that was requested by the noble Lord, Lord Wallace. The Elections Act 2022 introduced a restriction on ineligible foreign third-party campaigning above a £700 minimum threshold. The Government’s digital imprint regime, also introduced by the Elections Act 2022, delivers the ISC’s recommendations to introduce a requirement to add an imprint on all digital paid-for political advertising. Those proposals represent a significant step forward and will make United Kingdom politics even more transparent.

For all the reasons I have outlined, the Government cannot accept the proposed amendments.