The government’s White Paper proposes new offences for intentionally, recklessly or negligently damaging critical undersea energy and telecoms infrastructure, with prison sentences of up to 14 years for intentional damage and unlimited fines, alongside statutory security and resilience duties for subsea telecoms cable providers, including stronger requirements to identify and manage risks to their networks. It would also create a national security direction power allowing the Secretary of State to direct subsea cable and repair providers where necessary in the interests of national security, and a regulatory regime for sensing technology installed on subsea fibre-optic cables. The BBC reported that the emergency powers in the paper would let ministers order telecoms companies to hand over information or modify or disable services in connection with specific threats, with fines for companies that refuse to comply.
Telecoms Minister Ian Murray said the laws protecting the cables date back more than a century and that the government intends to modernise them, and the paper says the principal offence for damaging subsea cables dates to 1885 and refers to telegraphic communications. The government cited suspicious Russian activity around critical undersea infrastructure, including a covert Russian submarine operation it said the armed forces exposed around undersea infrastructure in and around UK waters in April. Publication of the paper opens a 12-week public consultation, and legislation would follow in the current parliament.