Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the UK Armed Forces' ability to protect undersea cable infrastructure.

The Government takes the security and resilience of all at-sea infrastructure, including undersea cables, very seriously. The Department for Science Innovation and Technology (DSIT) is the lead department for the security and resilience of telecommunications subsea cables and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) is the lead department for subsea energy cables. Detailing our assessments as to threats and our ability to protect undersea cables would be likely to prejudice the purpose of safeguarding their security and consequently national security. Subsea internet cables are specifically considered in the National Risk Assessment which is kept under review.

The Ministry of Defence constantly monitors activity within UK waters and its Economic Exclusion Zone to counter and deter detected threats. British warships frequently patrol throughout the UK marine area and are routed through the North Sea where possible, to deter and increase our visibility of potential threats.