A new legislative requirement – the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS) – came into effect on 1 July 2025.

This 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.

Not all activities need to be registered – in particular, for most foreign powers only directed political influence activity requires registration. 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.

The University of Bath has developed a suite of resources for staff and students to use to help them determine whether an activity should be registered. This includes an internal process which is easy to follow.

All these resources are available to University of Bath staff and students at the FIRS SharePoint site, and everyone is encouraged to familiarise themselves with its contents.

The resources on the FIRS SharePoint site include:

• A workflow showing the University of Bath internal 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 on what is required.
• Three FIRS forms (FIRS1-3).

We anticipate that very few University activities will fall within the scope of the FIRS legislation.

If you have unanswered questions after you have reviewed the documents on the SharePoint site, please contact FIRS@bath.ac.uk.