Clause 14 - Reviews of sections 1 to 13

Part of Telecommunications (Security) Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 9:45 am on 26 January 2021.

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Photo of Chi Onwurah Chi Onwurah Shadow Minister (Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy), Shadow Minister (Digital, Culture, Media and Sport), Shadow Minister (Science, Research and Innovation) 9:45, 26 January 2021

The hon. Lady is absolutely right. The clause enables the Minister or Secretary of State to choose to lay a report more frequently. Again, I do not want to impute anything against the Minister or the Secretary of State, but given the importance of the subject and of parliamentary review, why not ensure that it is more frequent?

I am sure that the hon. Lady will agree that Parliament has many things to consider, and so does the Secretary of State. There is competition for parliamentary time, particularly in a pandemic and in view of the challenges that we shall face in the next few years. How can I put this? We have concerns that the priority may slip in the face of, for example, economic challenges, investment challenges and recovery challenges. We want to be sure what is happening. We are the party of national security and we want to ensure that, in this context, national security is brought to Parliament to be debated, discussed and reviewed at least every year.

I have outlined the importance of parliamentary scrutiny as part of our wish to do that, but we should also consider what might happen in the next five years, before the first review mandated by the Bill. We have seen vast technical, technological and geopolitical shifts in the last five years. We face security challenges from China and Russia, and terrorist threats in a complex security environment. I am sure the Minister does not anticipate that those hostile actors against whom the measures in the Bill securing our networks are primarily directed will not respond; they will do so. We cannot imagine that we will take these measures to secure our networks against those who seek to attack or undermine our telecommunications capability in their own interests and they will not respond in some way. As it stands, the first review of that response could be five years after it has happened.

In addition, specifically with regard to the hope on which the Government might be placing an unjustified amount of assurance in diversifying our supply chains using open radio access network technology, we heard from witnesses that the next five years are key. The next five years will be the period in which we will see—or not see—the maturity of open RAN technology. There was a discussion about whether open RAN will be a viable and credible alternative in the next year, two years, three years or four years. While there are technological changes and the maturity of open RAN is in question, spending the next five years without having a review of its effectiveness seems to me to lack appropriate oversight.

There is support for increased review measures. We heard from Derek McManus, the chief operating officer of O2, about the evolution of open RAN. He said:

“There are trials in the UK…it will be at least a couple of years before you have a viable technical and commercial product, focused initially on rural.”––[Official Report, Telecommunications (Security) Public Bill Committee, 14 January 2021; c. 11, Q5.]

As things stand, that period could pass without any review or report. We also heard from Emily Taylor, the chief executive of Oxford Information Labs, who said:

“Imagine if we were sitting here, in five or 10 years’ time, lamenting the fact that the equipment market is now dominated by Microsoft and Google. I am just making that up as a hypothetical example—I have no knowledge to back that up—but those are the companies that have the sufficient scale and skills, and as Chi Onwurah said in her question we are moving to a more hybrid network, where skills in cloud computing and software are going to define the success of the player.”––[Official Report, Telecommunications (Security) Public Bill Committee, 19 January 2021; c. 77, Q92.]

I am quoting someone quoting me, who says that

“skills in cloud computing and software are going to define…success” but we are going to wait five years to review, when, as I am sure the Minister is well aware, given his background, five years could be five technological generations in this area.

The next five years will be key to the maturation of the technologies about which the Minister has so many hopes to help with the diversification of our supply chain and in terms of the global security and geopolitical environment and landscape, yet we have no requirement for reporting or accountability during that time. That is what the amendment is designed to change.