Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Lord Vallance of Balham on 3 December (HL Deb cols 1033–1034), whether they have an agreed retaliation doctrine for the cutting of UK undersea cables.

The UK Government constantly monitors and regularly assesses the security of critical national infrastructure, including energy and telecommunications assets in the UK's Exclusive Economic Zone. This is a whole-of-Government effort involving multiple Departments, including the Ministry of Defence.

While it is not appropriate for us to discuss the specifics of response options, our adversaries should be in no doubt of our ability to protect the UK and its interests, and that any deliberate attack on UK infrastructure would be met with an appropriate response.