At a glance
- Prison sentences of up to 14 years would apply to those who intentionally damage critical undersea energy and telecoms infrastructure.
- For investors who own subsea cable routes, the criminal penalties as proposed attach to ship owners and deliberate damage, while the new duties and direction powers fall on telecoms providers.
- Telecoms providers would face new requirements to take steps to protect cables from threats such as sabotage or espionage.
Ship owners whose vessels damage subsea cables in UK waters would face unlimited fines under proposals in a white paper the government published last week, part of a package it says would update 140-year-old legislation.
Prison sentences of up to 14 years would apply to those who intentionally damage critical undersea energy and telecoms infrastructure. The white paper would replace the 1885 Submarine Telegraph Act, which the government says refers to 'telegraphic' communications. The government first announced plans to strengthen regulation around subsea infrastructure in May, following warnings from Parliament's Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy last year.
For investors who own subsea cable routes, the criminal penalties as proposed attach to ship owners and deliberate damage, while the new duties and direction powers fall on telecoms providers. The white paper also promises safeguards for fiber optic sensing technology that could detect activity at sea, a category that covers monitoring hardware rather than the cable asset itself.
Telecoms providers would face new requirements to take steps to protect cables from threats such as sabotage or espionage. The government would also gain powers to intervene and direct providers where national security is at risk.
Telecoms minister Ian Murray said undersea cables carry "the data we rely on every day to message friends and family, do our banking, and run our businesses." He said the threats have changed, citing suspicious Russian activity around critical undersea infrastructure, and that some laws protecting the connections date back more than a century. "We intend to modernize those laws with tougher penalties, stronger requirements on industry and new powers to protect our national security," he said.
The proposals follow an April statement by the British Armed Forces that it had exposed a covert Russian submarine operation around critical undersea infrastructure in and around UK waters.
A 12-week public consultation will gather views from industry, experts and the public.
Reported by the Data centers & fiber desk from Data Center Dynamics. Published . Corrections