Official Secrets Act 1911

The Official Secrets Act 1911 is a United Kingdom statute that created criminal offenses for espionage and for the unauthorized communication of information useful to an enemy, replacing an earlier and narrower Official Secrets Act of 1889. It was passed rapidly by Parliament amid heightened public and government anxiety about German espionage in the years before the First World War. Section 1 of the act, which addresses spying for a foreign power, remains in force today, while section 2, a broadly drawn provision criminalizing almost any unauthorized disclosure of official information by a government employee, was repealed and replaced by the narrower Official Secrets Act 1989 following criticism that it had been used to suppress legitimate disclosures rather than only genuine security breaches. The 1911 act's espionage provisions remain a core part of United Kingdom national security law.