Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his European counterparts on tackling the threat to underwater cables posed by foreign states; and what steps he is taking to ensure the protection of such cables.

The Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs and I have had a number of discussions with our European counterparts on threats to underwater infrastructure. The Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs discussed this most recently at the UK-Netherlands Strategic Dialogue in December 2024. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office works closely on this issue with the Ministry of Defence and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, which is the lead government department for telecommunications and is responsible for developing policies to help ensure the security and resilience of underwater telecommunications cables.