Draft Trade (Mobile Roaming) (Amendment) Regulations 2026

Ben Spencer Excerpts

Wednesday 8th July 2026 General Committees

[Dr Ben Spencer (Runnymede and Weybridge) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Jardine. I have three questions about this statutory instrument. The first is a request for clarity from the Minister, because I was a bit confused by some of his comments about the caps that are being updated by this SI. On my reading of the explanatory memorandum, the reciprocal arrangements with caps of EEA operators in Norway were already below the proposed caps, in fact quite substantially so: about 50% on voice, between 33% and 66% on SMS, and between 50% on data. That demonstrates to me the success of the free market.

The impact assessment says very clearly that the impact of this SI is zero, given that the market has already found a solution. Will the Minister clarify that a bit further in case I have read that wrong? Will he celebrate the impact of the free market? Will he also update the House on the work that is being done to reduce barriers to other roaming charges, particularly in jurisdictions such as Canada, the US and Mexico, which are of particular interest to many of our citizens at this moment in time?

I see that the agreement was made in November 2025. Why has it taken seven months to bring this SI to us? Is that indicative of the performance of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology in turning around SIs? Finally, given that the impact assessment says that this SI has no impact, can the Minister tell us the cost of drawing it up and putting it in front of us today?