Louise Sandher-Jones corrected a written answer on National Security: Infrastructure

11 September 2026 · Commons written answer · Ministry of Defence

Stuart Anderson (Conservative, South Shropshire) asked written question 21609 on 28 August 2026. Luke Pollard answered on 8 September 2026 for the Ministry of Defence, and Louise Sandher-Jones corrected the answer on 11 September 2026. The corrected text no longer gives the figure 1885. Altogether 197 words differ between the two versions.

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to page 89 of his Department's Strategic Defence Review, published 2 June 2025, what progress he has made on exploring options for a new deal for the defence of CNI.

Original and corrected answer

Struck through: original only. Bold: correction only.

Original	Corrected
~~The~~ Government ~~has made significant progress in reviewing current legislation in relation~~ to ~~critical undersea infrastructure (CUI), including~~ the ~~Submarine Telegraph Act 1885.~~ As the ~~Government announced~~ in ~~May, later this year~~ we ~~plan~~ to ~~publicly consult on proposals~~ to ~~modernise and strengthen our legislation.~~	Defence is continuing to work closely with the Cabinet Office and other Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) Lead Government Departments to deliver the Strategic Defence Review recommendations for a new deal for the protection of CNI. We are working across Government to take a data-driven approach to identifying the CNI most essential to the UK’s ability to sustain and respond to conflict. By contributing Defence data to the Cabinet Office's CNI Knowledge Base, we are fulfilling the commitments set out in the Resilience Action Plan and improving our understanding of the infrastructure, dependencies and vulnerabilities that would be most critical in a conflict scenario. This analysis is informing our Home Defence planning by ensuring that we align Defence resources and capabilities to the protection of the most important infrastructure against a broad spectrum of threats, from hybrid activity through to conventional conflict. It will also help to identify what Defence could contribute to support the protection of other priority CNI that is essential to the functioning of the country.

Original

Corrected

~~The~~ Government ~~has made significant progress in reviewing current legislation in relation~~ to ~~critical undersea infrastructure (CUI), including~~ the ~~Submarine Telegraph Act 1885.~~
As the ~~Government announced~~ in ~~May, later this year~~ we ~~plan~~ to ~~publicly consult on proposals~~ to ~~modernise and strengthen our legislation.~~

Defence is continuing to work closely with the Cabinet Office and other Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) Lead Government Departments to deliver the Strategic Defence Review recommendations for a new deal for the protection of CNI.
We are working across Government to take a data-driven approach to identifying the CNI most essential to the UK’s ability to sustain and respond to conflict. By contributing Defence data to the Cabinet Office's CNI Knowledge Base, we are fulfilling the commitments set out in the Resilience Action Plan and improving our understanding of the infrastructure, dependencies and vulnerabilities that would be most critical in a conflict scenario.
This analysis is informing our Home Defence planning by ensuring that we align Defence resources and capabilities to the protection of the most important infrastructure against a broad spectrum of threats, from hybrid activity through to conventional conflict. It will also help to identify what Defence could contribute to support the protection of other priority CNI that is essential to the functioning of the country.

The question and answer on the Parliament website.

More on Louise Sandher-Jones and Luke Pollard.

Receipt

Read from	https://questions-statements-api.parliament.uk/api/writtenquestions/questions/1932103?expandMember=true
Date read	16 October 2026
SHA-256	`319a85d8256f685b58d3f9ae6985ac99e9285bd6281f4319d86a2943da1d54ae`