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The Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Bill has its second reading on 26 January 2022.

The Bill would:

Information about the Bills stages and related publications is provided on the Parliamentary Bill page.

Part 1 of the Bill relates to powers to introduce mandatory security requirements for connectable products such as smart phones, smart TVs and connected speakers. These products may also be described as smart devices, or internet of things (IoT) devices.

Connectable products are required to meet certain safety standards, but there are currently no mandatory security requirements. There is growing concern about the risks to consumers associated with some of these products, through breaches in safety and privacy and their potential for use in wider cyber-attacks.

The Government published a voluntary Code of Practice for Consumer IoT Security, in 2018. It provided manufacturers and others with guidance (13 principles) on good practice to ensure connectable products were secure.

In response to poor uptake of the Code of Practice and continued risks to consumers, the Government consulted in 2019 on introducing mandatory security requirements for connectable products. Legislative proposals were consulted on in 2020.

The Bill would provide regulation-making powers for the Secretary of State to introduce security requirements for connectable products sold in the UK.

The Government has said that it intends the following products to be affected by the Bill:

Some products would be excluded, such as smart meters, medical devices, vehicles and smart chargepoints (for electric vehicles).

The Government said it will use the powers under clause 1 of the Bill to introduce the top three guidelines from the Code of Practice:

It would also place duties on manufacturers, importers and distributers of these products to ensure compliance with the statutory requirements and to take action where a compliance failure has occurred.

The Bill sets out a number of enforcement measures that could be taken when there is a breach of compliance. For serious issues of non-compliance, the Bill sets the maximum penalty at 10 million or 4% of the companys worldwide revenue.

Part 2 of the Bill would make changes to the electronic communications code (ECC). The ECC is the main law that governs the rights of telecoms companies to install infrastructure on land, UK-wide.

The ECC was significantly reformed in 2017. This included changes to rights to upgrade and share infrastructure and changes to dispute resolution processes. It also included changes to how land is valued when determining rent for hosting telecoms equipment under a court-imposed agreement.

Reforms to the ECC have always been highly contested, with often strongly opposing views between telecoms operators and site providers (landowners). The Government has to strike a difficult balance between ensuring digital connectivity is widely available while property rights are respected.

The land valuation reforms have been particularly controversial, with reports thatrents for hosting telecoms equipment have reduced, in some cases dramatically. The ECC is said to be causingdelays to infrastructure roll-out through lengthy negotiations and legal proceedings.

The Governments consultation that informed the Bill did not revisit the topic of land valuation.

The Bill aims to encourage faster and more collaborative negotiations for the installation and maintenance of telecoms equipment on private land. The Government says this would help ensure the efficient roll-out of digital infrastructure such as gigabit-broadband and 5G.

The main changes the Bill would make include:

Telecoms operators and site providers had opposing views on most of the above changes, with telecoms operators agreeing that changes should be made and most site providers disagreeing.

The Bill would apply to all of the UK.

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The Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Bill 2021-22 - House of Commons Library - Commons Library