The Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS) came into force on 1 July 2025. The legislation requires individuals or organisations to register formal or informal agreements made with a foreign power (or with one of the foreign power-controlled entities listed in the government guidance) where the activity is directed by that foreign power or entity.
To help staff and students determine whether an activity should be registered under the scheme, a suite of resources is available on our FIRS SharePoint site and everyone is encouraged to familiarise themselves with its contents.
Not all activities need to be registered - in particular, for most foreign powers only directed political influence activity requires registration. We therefore anticipate that very few University activities will fall within the scope of the FIRS legislation.
All of our FIRS resources are available to Bath staff and students on the FIRS SharePoint site and include an internal process which is easy to follow.
The resources available are:
- a workflow showing our internal FIRS process
- a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- a general briefing note on FIRS
- a glossary of key FIRS terms
- guidance notes on whether a FIRS form should be completed, and an explanation of each form
- three FIRS forms (FIRS1-3)
The guidance includes useful examples of the kind of arrangements and activities that are (and are not) registerable.
The legal requirement to register reportable activities may fall on the individual engaged in that arrangement, or on their organisation. The person required to register may be a student or a member of staff.
If you have unanswered questions after you have reviewed the documents on the SharePoint site, please contact FIRS@bath.ac.uk.