Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) news story entitled ZTE: NCSC advice to select telecommunications operators with national security concerns, published on 16 April 2018, what his Department's assessment of the reasons NCSC stated in its letter of 13 April 2018 that there was no way to mitigate potential risk from using ZTE technology is.

The National Cyber Security Centre, as the UK’s National Technical Authority for cyber security, is operationally independent from the Cabinet Office. Therefore, the Minister for the Cabinet Office does not need to authorise or review the National Cyber Security Centre’s technical advice, including that on ZTE.

Government and the telecoms industry take cyber security risks very seriously. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with support from the NCSC and Ofcom, is leading a review into the security and resilience of our telecoms supply chain.