Draft Trade (Mobile Roaming) (Amendment) Regulations 2026
Debate between Ian Murray and Peter Fortune(3 weeks, 6 days ago)
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The Minister for Digital Government and Data (Ian Murray)
I beg to move,
That the Committee has considered the draft Trade (Mobile Roaming) (Amendment) Regulations 2026.
It is great to see a fellow Edinburgher in the Chair, Ms Jardine. [Interruption.] I will not divide the Committee on the pronunciation of “Jardine”.
The draft regulations are required in order to amend the Trade (Mobile Roaming) Regulations 2023 by updating the international mobile roaming wholesale rates that they set. Wholesale rates are those that mobile operators charge other mobile operators, as opposed to retail customers. The amendments will give effect in domestic law to a November 2025 decision of the EEA EFTA-UK free trade agreement joint committee, the governing body of the agreement, on which each party has a seat. I note, however, that one EEA EFTA member, Liechtenstein, has opted out of the international mobile roaming provisions in the free trade agreement.
The amendments to the international mobile roaming wholesale rates are being made to ensure that they continue to reflect current international benchmarks, which reflect market conditions. This is consistent with and necessary under the terms of the free trade agreement.
Let me provide some background for the Committee. In 2021, the UK and the EEA EFTA signed a free trade agreement. Its core terms included provisions on industrial goods, digital trade, services and investment and, of course, fisheries and agriculture. Under digital trade, in a telecoms chapter, it contained provisions on international mobile roaming. These provisions set a wholesale cap, which limits what mobile operators can charge each other. In 2023, the UK introduced the Trade (Mobile Roaming) Regulations to implement these provisions in UK legislation. The draft regulations will amend those regulations.
As per the free trade agreement, the Trade (Mobile Roaming) Regulations covered wholesale charges only. The free trade agreement contains a review clause, under which the wholesale rates should be reviewed by all affected parties every two years
“with a view to determining whether those rates are still appropriate”.
The UK is one of the affected parties, along with Norway and Iceland.
The rate set under the agreement has now diverged from the “relevant international benchmarks” that the agreement states should be considered. The benchmark relevant to EEA EFTA-UK is the European Union-set international mobile roaming wholesale rate, called the Euro rate. EEA EFTA adheres to the Euro rate as part of its access to the EU single market. The UK adhered to the Euro rate until 2021, with the end of the Brexit transition period at the end of 2020. The EU benchmark is based on the principle that the wholesale cap must be high enough to allow operators fully to recover reasonably incurred costs involved in building, maintaining and operating their networks. This principle, based on market conditions, is supported by the United Kingdom.
In 2025, Norway, supported by Iceland, requested a move to reflect the Euro rate. The reason was that the wholesale cap in the UK-EEA EFTA agreement should reflect international benchmarks and current market conditions. Ministers agreed to proceed with legislation for these new rates to demonstrate the UK’s willingness to align with the provisions of the free trade agreement. In November 2025, the governing body of the agreement, the UK-EEA EFTA joint committee, made Decision No. 1/2025, which agreed that the wholesale rates should be changed. The draft regulations will amend the Trade (Mobile Roaming) Regulations 2023 to give effect in domestic law to the commitments that the UK has made to the joint committee.
I should start asking questions, to see whether people are still keeping up with all this. I think I am.
The draft regulations are strictly about amending the wholesale rate set out in the Trade (Mobile Roaming) Regulations. It is a very technical amendment. However, I believe that it would be helpful to conclude by setting the context for the wholesale cap in the free trade agreement.
Peter Fortune (Bromley and Biggin Hill) (Con)
What reassurance do we have that these savings will be passed on to customers, rather than just going towards the companies’ bottom line?
Ian Murray
That is an incredibly good question. That is why we are making the draft regulations, because the wholesale rates, or the Euro rates, are much lower than the rates currently in operation. For example, a voice call, which is €0.032, will go down to €0.019; an SMS, which is €0.01, will go down to €0.003; and data, which is €2.50 per gigabyte, will go down to €1.30 per gigabyte. The Euro rate is €1 per gigabyte. One would hope that if wholesale prices are being lowered, the savings will be passed on to consumers, as I am sure the Committee agrees they should be. Although the hon. Gentleman’s question was not strictly about the draft regulations, it was a great question to which I am delighted to have the answer.
Mandatory Digital ID
Debate between Ian Murray and Peter Fortune(9 months, 2 weeks ago)
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Ian Murray
No, it is not. I cannot remember which hon. Gentleman made the point about over-75s not being digitally excluded. I do not know many over-75s who are looking for work, so if they do not want to have this, they do not need to have it. And for people who are particularly challenged in terms of mental capacity or otherwise, there will be a different system—
Ian Murray
Let me finish the first point. There will be available a system that is non-digital for people to use in those particular circumstances. In terms of the way the law works now, it is illegal for an employer to employ someone who does not have the right to work in this country. There is already a process for people to use passports or driving licences to prove their identification. If the hon. Member for Moray West, Nairn and Strathspey (Graham Leadbitter) wants his passport or driving licence held in some dusty filing cabinet and photocopied 400 times, rather than just proving his right to work in this country on his digital ID, I would suggest that that is less secure than having it on a smartphone.