UK looks to introduce 14 years jail time for damaging internet cables
Key Points
- Government plans up to 14 years in jail for deliberately damaging UK subsea cables
- New law would replace the Submarine Telegraph Act 1885
- Offence covers cyber attacks and surveying cables ahead of an attack
- Cable owners face fines of up to £10 million or 10% of revenue
- Consultation closes on 14 January 2027
People who deliberately damage the UK’s undersea cables could face 14 years in jail. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero set out the plans in a white paper published on Thursday (22 October).
The proposals would replace the Submarine Telegraph Act 1885, which was written for telegraph lines and does not cover pipelines at all.
Under the 1885 law, the maximum sentence for negligently damaging a cable is three months in jail.
The new framework sets out three tiers of punishment based on how culpable the offender is:
- Up to 14 years in jail for deliberately damaging or interfering with infrastructure
- Up to 10 years in jail for reckless conduct
- Up to two years in jail for grossly negligent conduct
All three tiers carry unlimited fines, and the rules would apply to companies as well as individuals.
The government is also considering life sentences where damage causes, or risks causing, loss of life or serious harm to national security.
“The first duty of government is to keep the country safe. Today, that means protecting not only our borders, but the critical infrastructure beneath our seas,” wrote Ian Murray, Minister of State at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, and Michael Shanks, Minister of State at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.
Cyber attacks and surveying covered
The new offence covers cyber attacks and remote electronic interference as well as physical damage to cables, pipelines and electricity interconnectors.
It also targets anyone who maps, surveys or positions equipment near infrastructure to prepare for a later attack, even before any damage occurs.
The offence would apply whether the offender uses a crewed vessel, a remotely operated vehicle or an autonomous system.
Supplementary offences carrying up to two years in jail include obstructing repair work, destroying navigational or vessel data, and ignoring directions from law enforcement.
The government said defences would protect people who damage infrastructure while saving lives, preserving a vessel or carrying out repairs.
In April, Defence Secretary John Healey revealed that UK forces and their allies tracked Russian submarines on missions to survey cables.
Subsea cables carry about 99% of the UK’s international data traffic across 64 cable systems that land on UK shores.
Forty-five of those systems connect the UK to other countries, while 19 link the mainland to its offshore islands.
Gas pipelines supply 74% of the UK’s gas, and interconnector cables with Europe provide 10.3GW of electricity capacity.
The National Security Act 2023 already carries life sentences for sabotage, but only where prosecutors can prove a foreign power was involved.
Reach beyond UK waters
The offences would apply to anyone within the UK’s territorial sea, which stretches 12 nautical miles from the coast, regardless of nationality or a vessel’s flag.
They would also cover UK nationals and UK-flagged vessels anywhere in international waters.
Further out, the rules would catch conduct that affects infrastructure connected to the UK and is likely to have significant effects inside the country.
Enforcement officers would gain powers to stop, board, divert and detain vessels at sea, including foreign-flagged ships where international law allows.
The government is also exploring ways to help cable and pipeline operators recover repair costs from those responsible through the civil courts.
Separately, the white paper proposes new duties on companies that own and operate subsea telecoms cables, with fines of up to £10 million or 10% of worldwide revenue for breaches.
These duties include reporting every cable fault and outage to government and the regulator as soon as reasonably practicable.
The government also wants the power to order cable operators to reroute traffic, prioritise repairs or preserve evidence during a national security incident, with fines of up to £17 million or 10% of global turnover.
