UK proposes 14-year prison terms for undersea cable sabotage
A white paper would replace the 1885 Submarine Telegraph Act, whose maximum fine of £1,000 is a fraction of real repair costs, and add security duties for subsea telecom operators.
The British government has proposed prison sentences of up to 14 years and unlimited fines for deliberately damaging undersea cables and pipelines, part of a white paper meant to replace the Submarine Telegraph Act 1885.
The Victorian-era law caps punishment at a £1,000 fine and five years' imprisonment for deliberate damage. The government says that fine is a fraction of actual repair costs. It cited repairs to the Estlink 2 electricity cable between Finland and Estonia, damaged by the anchor of the Eagle S oil tanker on Christmas Day 2024, which grid operator Elering estimated at €50 million to €60 million.
The proposed offenses would cover telecoms cables, electricity interconnectors and pipelines that the white paper says carry 99% of the UK's international data traffic and supply 74% of its gas. Reckless damage would carry up to 10 years, and gross negligence up to two years.
The government also plans statutory security and resilience requirements for subsea telecom operators, with powers to direct cable and repair providers on national security grounds. Separate rules would cover fiber-optic sensing, which can detect activity at sea but may expose sensitive information.
Officials framed the change around hybrid threats. Telecoms minister Ian Murray and energy minister Michael Shanks wrote jointly that risks to critical subsea infrastructure are evolving, citing a warning that a Royal Navy attack submarine had surfaced near a Russian spy ship mapping such infrastructure in British waters. The Ministry of Defence said in April that British and allied forces tracked a Russian attack submarine and vessels linked to Russia's Main Directorate of Deep Sea Research near cables and pipelines north of Britain.
Attribution remains contested. Finnish investigators initially suspected deliberate damage to Baltic Sea cables, but officials from several North Sea and Baltic countries later told Recorded Future News they increasingly believed that incident and other Baltic breaks were accidental, citing investigations, intelligence and shipping data. The government says the UK's cable network remains highly resilient and that most faults come from anchors, fishing nets, environmental hazards or technical failures, while warning of growing suspicious activity.
Matt Western, chair of Parliament's Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy, welcomed the proposals, saying the legislation covering attacks on undersea cables "was written in a different age."
The 12-week public consultation closes January 14, 2027.
Sources
- UK proposes 14-year prison terms for undersea cable sabotagePrimarytherecord.media
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