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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the announcement by his Department on 20 February 2020 of a £65 million package for 5G trials, what the Government's policy is on security in the telecommunications supply chain in respect of those trials; and what decisions have been made in respect of the identity of the suppliers that will provide the infrastructure for those trials.

The recent announcement of a new £65 million package of 5G trials forms part of the DCMS £200 million 5G Testbeds and Trials programme. That included £35 million for nine winning projects from our rural and industrial 5G competitions, and a new £30 million open competition - 5G Create - that will launch in due course.

The Programme ensures that each of our projects has a security strategy in place that identifies and mitigates security risks and is proportionate for R&D environments. Testbeds are encouraged to employ nationally recognised standards and best practice security approaches. This includes identifying and mitigating supply chain risks and taking steps to manage High Risk Vendors. None of the successful projects announced as part of Industrial 5G and Rural Connected Communities will use equipment from high risk vendors. We will publish guidance in due course for our 5G Create competition when it launches.