Official Secrets Act 1920
E443633
The Official Secrets Act 1920 is a UK law that strengthened and expanded earlier official secrets legislation by broadening the range of security-related offences and powers concerning espionage and the protection of sensitive government information.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Official Secrets Act 1920 canonical | 4 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T4359558 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Official Secrets Act 1920 Context triple: [Official Secrets Act 1989, relatedLegislation, Official Secrets Act 1920]
-
A.
Official Secrets Act 1911
The Official Secrets Act 1911 is a key piece of United Kingdom legislation that established criminal offences related to espionage and the unauthorised disclosure of information affecting national security.
-
B.
Official Secrets Act 1989
The Official Secrets Act 1989 is a UK law that criminalizes the unauthorized disclosure of sensitive government and security information by officials, journalists, and others.
-
C.
Espionage Act of 1917
The Espionage Act of 1917 is a U.S. federal law enacted during World War I that criminalizes interference with military operations, support for U.S. enemies, and certain forms of dissent, and has been widely used and debated in national security and free speech cases.
-
D.
Suppression of Communism Act
The Suppression of Communism Act was a key apartheid-era South African law used to outlaw communism and broadly criminalize anti-government and anti-apartheid political activity.
-
E.
Sedition Act of 1918
The Sedition Act of 1918 was a World War I–era U.S. law that expanded restrictions on speech by criminalizing criticism of the government, the Constitution, the military, or the war effort.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Official Secrets Act 1920 Target entity description: The Official Secrets Act 1920 is a UK law that strengthened and expanded earlier official secrets legislation by broadening the range of security-related offences and powers concerning espionage and the protection of sensitive government information.
-
A.
Official Secrets Act 1911
The Official Secrets Act 1911 is a key piece of United Kingdom legislation that established criminal offences related to espionage and the unauthorised disclosure of information affecting national security.
-
B.
Official Secrets Act 1989
The Official Secrets Act 1989 is a UK law that criminalizes the unauthorized disclosure of sensitive government and security information by officials, journalists, and others.
-
C.
Espionage Act of 1917
The Espionage Act of 1917 is a U.S. federal law enacted during World War I that criminalizes interference with military operations, support for U.S. enemies, and certain forms of dissent, and has been widely used and debated in national security and free speech cases.
-
D.
Suppression of Communism Act
The Suppression of Communism Act was a key apartheid-era South African law used to outlaw communism and broadly criminalize anti-government and anti-apartheid political activity.
-
E.
Sedition Act of 1918
The Sedition Act of 1918 was a World War I–era U.S. law that expanded restrictions on speech by criminalizing criticism of the government, the Constitution, the military, or the war effort.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom
ⓘ
United Kingdom legislation ⓘ |
| amends | Official Secrets Act 1911 ⓘ |
| appliesTo |
Crown servants
ⓘ
civilians ⓘ government contractors ⓘ members of the armed forces ⓘ |
| broadens | scope of espionage-related offences beyond the 1911 Act ⓘ |
| citation | 10 & 11 Geo. 5. c. 75 ⓘ |
| country | United Kingdom ⓘ |
| createsOffence |
approaching prohibited places for purposes prejudicial to the state
ⓘ
failing to give information about offences under the Official Secrets Acts when required ⓘ harbouring spies ⓘ interfering with police or armed forces in the execution of their duty in certain security contexts ⓘ unauthorised communication of official information ⓘ |
| defines | prohibited places for security purposes ⓘ |
| enforcedBy |
Crown Prosecution Service
ⓘ
police forces in the United Kingdom ⓘ |
| expands | powers of search and arrest in relation to official secrets offences ⓘ |
| hasTerritorialExtent |
England and Wales
ⓘ
Northern Ireland ⓘ Scotland ⓘ |
| jurisdiction | United Kingdom ⓘ |
| legalArea |
criminal law
ⓘ
national security law ⓘ |
| legislature |
Parliament of the United Kingdom
ⓘ
linked to:
British Parliament
|
| longTitle | An Act to amend the Official Secrets Act 1911 ⓘ |
| partOf |
Official Secrets Acts
ⓘ
linked to:
Official Secrets Act
|
| providesFor |
arrest without warrant in certain official secrets cases
ⓘ
warrants to search premises for evidence of official secrets offences ⓘ |
| purpose |
to address espionage and related activities
ⓘ
to broaden the range of security-related offences ⓘ to protect sensitive government information ⓘ to strengthen and expand earlier official secrets legislation ⓘ |
| regulates |
activities prejudicial to the safety or interests of the state
ⓘ
disclosure of official information ⓘ handling of sensitive government documents ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
Official Secrets Act 1889
ⓘ
Official Secrets Act 1911 ⓘ Official Secrets Act 1939 ⓘ Official Secrets Act 1989 ⓘ |
| royalAssent | 1920 ⓘ |
| shortTitle | Official Secrets Act 1920 ⓘ |
| status | partly in force ⓘ |
| subjectHeading |
espionage law
ⓘ
government information control ⓘ state secrets ⓘ |
| yearEnacted | 1920 ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Official Secrets Act 1920 Description of subject: The Official Secrets Act 1920 is a UK law that strengthened and expanded earlier official secrets legislation by broadening the range of security-related offences and powers concerning espionage and the protection of sensitive government information.
Referenced by (4)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.