Ministers should have sign-off on deals surrounding critical national infrastructure, the prime minister’s national security adviser will today propose, after questions were raised about the oversight of Huawei, the Chinese technology group.
Sir Kim Darroch is expected to recommend tightening the protocols around sensitive infrastructure deals, according to two people familiar with his report, and improved governance at the Cyber Security Evaluation Centre in Banbury, established three years ago by Huawei, to examine the physical equipment and software it used and assure it was not vulnerable to cyber attack.
The proposals follow criticism from parliament’s intelligence and security committee about a lack of ministerial oversight on a deal struck between BT, the UK telecommunications group, and Huawei nearly a decade ago. The committee has also concluded that it was unsatisfactory that “the cell” – as the centre in Banbury is known – was run by people who were technically employees of Huawei.