Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what guidance his Department has issued to network operators on mitigating the effect of high risk vendors in their network.

We have undertaken a comprehensive review of the telecoms supply chain to ensure the security and resilience of 5G and fibre in the UK. The final conclusions of the Review in relation to high risk vendors were announced on 28 January, following a robust, evidence-based decision-making process involving security analysis by the UK’s world-leading National Cyber Security Centre.

The previous Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport announced that high risk vendors should be excluded from those parts of the 5G and full fibre networks that are critical to security (“the core”), and their presence in the rest of the UK’s networks should be limited to 35 per cent, with further restrictions in sensitive geographic locations.

This decision is supported by guidance for the UK’s telecoms operators issued by the National Cyber Security Centre which has been published online.