Trade (Mobile Roaming) (Amendment) Regulations 2026

Viscount Stansgate Excerpts

Tuesday 7th July 2026 Grand Committee

[Viscount Stansgate (Lab)]

My Lords, I had not intended to contribute to this, but I hope the Committee will allow me to say that I took great interest in the fact that surcharges for roaming may affect calls between this country and, for example, Norway. We will have to wait and see what happens on Saturday, and whether that encourages or discourages further calls.

As this is my noble friend’s first appearance at the Dispatch Box, I congratulate her for the way that she introduced this statutory instrument. I wish her well, not just for today, but for her first Question, which we understand is next week.

[Lord Clement-Jones (LD)]

It is a pleasure to follow the noble Viscount, particularly in welcoming the noble Baroness, Lady Ramsey of Wall Heath, to the Government Front Bench.

We again raise no particular objection to these regulations. Reducing the wholesale caps for calls, texts and data between the UK, Norway and Iceland, in line with the Joint Committee’s decision, is sensible and follows the agreement’s own review mechanism, exactly as intended. These new caps are, however, explicitly benchmarked against the EU’s own roam-like-at-home rates. If that standard is right for our EEA EFTA neighbours, it prompts an obvious question: why has no equivalent effort been made to secure a reciprocal surcharge-free roaming arrangement with the European Union itself, where far larger numbers of UK travellers go? They may go to Norway in greater numbers after this Saturday—I do not know—but certainly the numbers at the moment point that way. This Government, like their predecessors, seem content to import EU benchmarks piecemeal, while leaving the much bigger prize—a UK-EU roaming deal—untouched.