To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the oral statement by the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs of 28 January 2020 on UK Telecommunications, Official Report, column 709, whether his Department made an assessment of the (a) likelihood of the US imposing sanctions on Huawei and (b) potential effect of such sanctions prior to making decisions on how high-risk vendors would be restricted.

In January, Government issued advice to place stringent restrictions on high risk vendors in the UK 5G and full fibre networks was issued following a robust, evidence-based decision-making process, involving security analysis by the UK’s world leading technical experts in the National Cyber Security Centre, taking into consideration all threats and risks, including sanctions.

There were a number of sanctions already placed upon Huawei, imposed by the US Department of Commerce, at the time the January advice was issued. The UK Government and National Cyber Security Centre were aware of these sanctions, they were considered when advice was issued.