Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many (a) unilateral, (b) bilateral and (c) multilateral exercises his Department has conducted on the protection of undersea cables and critical national infrastructure in each year since 2010.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is not the lead Department for resilience of undersea cables in the UK Marine Area; that responsibility sits with the Department for Science and Technology. Defence has therefore not conducted dedicated exercises related to the protection of such infrastructure over the time period in question.

Defence does, however, frequently rehearse the capabilities which would be called upon in response to a threat to our subsea infrastructure. MOD has underwater capabilities able to be employed to monitor and assure subsea infrastructure, and has invested in a Multi-Role Ocean Surveillance (MROS) programme to enhance these capabilities further. These allow us to maintain maritime situational awareness, improve our ability to detect threats in the North Atlantic, and as a sovereign nation allow us to contribute to the defence and deterrence of the Euro Atlantic area.

We continue to invest in strong working relationships with neighbouring states and alliance partners within NATO, to enhance our ability to respond to threats in this domain. We are committed to prepare for, deter and defend against threats to our subsea infrastructure.