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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to his oral statement of 14 July 2020 on UK Telecommunications, if he will publish the evidential basis for the estimates of (a) £1 billion cost for the delay announced in January 2020 and (b) the £2 billion cost of the 2 to 3 years delay announced in the statement; and what consequences that estimate covers.

The Government has conducted its own modelling but this involves commercially sensitive information, and therefore cannot be published.

The Government’s advice has been clear that operators need to plan to remove all Huawei 5G equipment by 2027. It will be for individual operators to determine how to achieve that, and therefore the exact nature of any costs and delays will be specific to each operator.