The Snowden files should be the stimulus for an overdue review of the UK’s own 1989 Official Secrets Act. At present, the maximum tariff for serious breaches of the Act is just 14 years. This should be increased to a "whole of life tariff" for the most serious of breaches. Recent breaches of the Act, most notably ex-Royal Navy submariner, Edward Devenney, who attempted to pass nuclear secrets to the Russians, have only attracted a derisory custodial sentence of just eight years. A decade ago the ex-M15 officer, David Shayler, received just six months despite being convicted under the Act.