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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to diversify the UK’s national telecommunications supply chain, particularly with regard to 5G infrastructure.

The security and resilience of the UK’s telecoms networks is of paramount importance. The government will publish its targeted diversification strategy focused on rebalancing the telecommunications supply chain in the coming weeks alongside the Telecoms Security Bill. As part of this, we are exploring ways to incentivise research and development in the UK telecoms sector, such as alternative 5G deployment models, and accelerating the development of ‘interoperable’ equipment - kit which can be used by multiple vendors - and making it standard across the sector.

The government has established a Diversification Taskforce - chaired by Lord Livingston of Parkhead - which will provide independent and expert advice to the Government, supporting the development of the strategy and ensuring that our measures are ambitious and effective.