DVD Enforcement Guidelines

Today the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology has published guidelines on how the Secretary of State will approach compliance and enforcement of Designated Vendor Directions (“DVD”) issued under the Communications Act 2003 (the “Act”) as amended by the Telecommunications (Security) Act 2021.

The Act introduced powers for the Secretary of State to issue Designation Notices to vendors whose presence in UK networks poses national security risks and DVDs to public communications providers (“PCP”), placing controls on their use of goods and services provided by a designated vendor. The Secretary of State can issue a DVD to a PCP if they consider that it is necessary in the interests of national security and the requirements imposed by the DVD are proportionate to what is sought to be achieved by the DVD.

The Act also provides the Secretary of State with powers to ascertain whether PCPs are complying with the requirements imposed by a DVD and enforce against a PCP where they are found to be non-compliant with the requirements in a DVD.

This guidelines cover:

the background to DVDs and the powers available;the approach to enforcement action;how to establish whether there has been a contravention of a DVD requirement;how to determine whether to enforce against a contravention;the process for coming to a proposed penalty;issuing formal enforcement action;issuing a confirmation decision; andthe governance for how decisions on enforcement are made and communicated.This document acts as a guiding framework for His Majesty’s Government when considering enforcement and imposing penalties in relation to non-compliance with requirements in a DVD.