Translation Required: How to register for the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme

Translation Required:

Read information on the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS), learn about the public register, and check if you need to register for the scheme.

Nid oes unrhyw benawdau ar y dudalen hon i lywio iddynt.

Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS)

The Foreign Influence Registration Scheme provides:

transparency on foreign influence in UK politics
greater assurance around the activities of certain foreign powers and entities that may pose a risk to the safety and interests of the UK

The UK government has introduced this scheme to be better informed about the nature, scale, and extent of foreign influence in the UK. What is a foreign power?

A foreign power is any of the following:

The sovereign or other head of a foreign state.
A foreign government or part of a foreign government. For example, a ministry or department.
An agency or authority, or part of an agency or authority, of a foreign government.
An authority responsible for the administration of a region within a foreign country or territory. For example, a local government authority.
A political party that is the governing party of a foreign government.

Tiers

FIRS has 2 tiers in the legislation, the enhanced tier and the political influence tier. It is important to understand which tier your registration is in so you know what exemptions apply and when you must submit your registration.

The 'Who must register' section tells you if you need to register and which tier you are in.

In the FIRS online service, you do not select a tier, and we do not refer to them. The service will guide you through the correct route based on your answers.

Who must register

You must register for FIRS if you, or your entity, meet all the criteria of any one of these situations. What is an entity?

Any organisation, business, club, charity, educational institution, established association, or similar group of people.

Situation 1

You must register for FIRS if all the following criteria are met:

you or your entity are in a formal or informal agreement with a foreign power
the arrangement involves a direction from the foreign power to do, or arrange for others to do, at least one political-influencing activity in the UK

This is a political influence tier arrangement. You must register within 28 days after making the arrangement.

You do not need to register if you are exempt.

To read more about registering for FIRS if you meet this criteria, see page 6, chapter 3: Requirements of the Political Influence Tier in the 'Guidance on the political influence tier' document.

Situation 2

You must register for FIRS if all the following criteria are met:

you or your entity make a formal or informal arrangement with a specified foreign power or foreign power-controlled entity.
that arrangement involves a direction from the specified foreign power or entity to do any activity in the UK

This is an enhanced tier arrangement. You must register no later than 10 days after making the arrangement or before doing any activities, whichever happens earlier.

You do not need to register if you are exempt.

To read more about registering for FIRS if you meet this criteria, see page 5, chapter 3: Requirements of the Enhanced Tier in the 'Guidance on the enhanced tier' document. What is a direction?

A formal or informal order or instruction to act. What is an arrangement?

Any type of agreement, whether formal or informal, to do activities in the UK. This could include a contract, a Memorandum of Understanding, or an informal agreement to do activities in the UK. What is an activity?

An activity is any action that works towards the desired outcome of an agreement, or any action done under a direction from a foreign power or foreign power-controlled entity.

If you are still unsure if you need to register for FIRS, use our registration checker.

Exemptions

You do not need to register for FIRS in some cases. These include if:

Your arrangement is with the Republic of Ireland
The UK Government, or another UK Crown Body, is a party to your arrangement
You are a foreign power acting overtly
You are a spouse, partner, or family member of a diplomat or staff of diplomatic mission, and your arrangement is supporting their work
You are a lawyer and your activities are legal services

For the political influence tier, recognised news publishers are also exempt from registering.

To read more about FIRS exemptions for the political influence tier, see page 39, chapter 15: Exemptions in the 'Guidance on the political influence tier' document.

To read more about FIRS exemptions for the enhanced tier, see page 32, chapter 14: Exemptions in the 'Guidance on the enhanced tier' document. What is a UK Crown Body?

A department, office, executive agency, or other organisation that is defined by law in the UK as a crown body.

How to register

Start your registration using our online service.

Start

If you are the registrant

If you are the registrant, and you are registering for the first time, these are the basic steps you need to follow:

Sign in to your GOV.UK One Login account. You must create a GOV.UK One Login account if you do not have one.
Create a FIRS account.
Start a new registration.
Create a registrant.
Verify your identity.
Add an arrangement.
Add an activity.
Submit the registration.
You may need to provide evidence to explain why some of your information should remain private and not appear on the public register.
What is a registrant?

Any person or entity in an arrangement that needs to be registered. A registrant can also be a specified foreign power-controlled entity, or an individual who is employed by a foreign power and is misrepresenting themselves or their activities.

If your entity is the registrant

If your entity is the registrant, and they are registering for the first time, these are the basic steps you need to follow:

Sign in to your GOV.UK One Login account. You must create a GOV.UK One Login account if you do not have one.
Log into your FIRS account or create a FIRS account if you do not have one. This must be in your name, not the name of your entity.
Start a new registration.
Create a registrant. This is where you tell us the details of your entity.
Assign a Senior Responsible Officer (SRO). They must create a FIRS account, verify their identity, and be added as the SRO for this registrant before you can submit a registration. You can add an SRO during registration.
Add an arrangement.
Add an activity.
Submit the registration.
You may need to provide evidence to explain why some of the information should remain private and not appear on the public register.
What is a Senior Responsible Officer?

A Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) is a person who is responsible for making sure an entity complies with the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS).

If you are registering for someone else

If you are registering on behalf of another person, they need to add you as a user in their FIRS account before you can complete and submit registrations on their behalf.

To add another user to a registrant:

In your FIRS account, select an existing registrant.
Select Add a new user.
Enter the FIRS account number of the user you want to add.
That user must accept the invitation in their FIRS account.
You can then confirm their acceptance.

That user can then start and submit registrations on behalf of your registrant.

Any user added to a registrant can:

complete and submit registrations on behalf of ["registrant's name"]
see any registrations for ["registrant's name"]
add or remove other users
change the role of other users

Add another activity to a registration

To add another activity to an existing registration:

Sign in to your GOV.UK One Login account.
In your FIRS account, start a new registration.
Select an existing registrant.
Select an existing arrangement.
Add an activity.
Submit the registration.
You may need to provide evidence to explain why some of the information should remain private and not appear on the public register.

Read .

The FIRS public register

The FIRS public register provides information about foreign influence in UK politics.

View the FIRS public register.

If you register a political-influencing activity, some of the information related to this registration will appear on the FIRS public register.

The information from your registration that is set to appear on the FIRS public register is displayed before you submit.

Provide evidence for your information to remain private

Information set to appear on the FIRS public register will remain private if publication could:

cause serious harm to any individual
harm a criminal investigation or proceedings or the prevention or the detection of crime
harm the safety or interests of the UK
seriously harm the commercial interests of any individual or entity

If you provide evidence to show that publishing some, or all, of the information creates one or more of those risks, it will remain private and not appear on the FIRS public register.

In the online service, you can tell us if any of the information should stay private. If you do, you will have 5 days to submit your evidence.

You must explain how publishing the information could create the risks you selected. You can upload documents to support this.

To read more about what information is shown on the public register, see page 4, chapter 2: Information required which relates to registrants in the 'Guidance on the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS): Information required at registration and the public register' document.