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Telecommunications: Codes of Practice

Answer

The Telecommunications Security Code of Practice provides technical guidance for public telecoms providers on how they can comply with their security requirements as set out in the Telecommunications (Security) Act 2021 and the Electronic Communications (Security Measures) Regulations 2022.

The government is committed to continuously evaluating the effectiveness of the UK’s telecoms security framework, and the Draft Revised Code of Practice strengthens security guidance to public telecoms providers to reflect evolving technology and emerging security threats.

The government ran a consultation on proposed updates to the Telecommunications Security Code of Practice 2022 from 28 August 2025 to 22 October 2025, and an additional cost survey which ran from 25 November 2025 until 28 January 2026.

Cost related feedback received from the consultation, and the additional cost survey, informed the resulting assessment on costs to industry included in the explanatory memorandum for the Draft Revised Code of Practice, published on GOV.UK on 3 June.

Indicative estimates suggest potential one-off implementation costs of the proposed updates to the Code being in the order of £1.9 million to £3.2 million per provider. Estimates for the ongoing annual costs are approximately £285,000 to £445,000 per provider. The Government considers these costs to be relatively minor, given the critical importance of good security and the current scale and revenues of the UK telecommunications sector.

Underlying cost data from individual providers has not been published, to protect commercial confidentiality and mitigate the risk of exposing vulnerabilities in UK telecoms networks.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

HL1787

Session

2026-27

Subjects

Codes of practice Costs Public consultation Telecommunications

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk