A defence official has confirmed that the Ministry of Defence is currently looking into the possible security risks associated with Chinese vehicles, while personnel have been advised to refrain from discussing secret information in all cars.
Security Advice for Defence Staff
In a recent interview on LBC, Luke Pollard addressed claims that Ministry of Defence officials have been told not to talk about classified information while riding in China-made cars.
He stated that the MoD is “looking into” cars from China within its vehicle pools, but noted that safety is a issue in every contemporary vehicles.
Our department has a fleet of tens of thousands of vehicles in the MoD and those vehicles account for a tiny fraction.
But regardless of if you’re driving a vehicle from China or a non-Chinese car, what we’ve asked our staff is to avoid connecting MoD devices into their vehicle, not to have conversations at a classified level in any kind of vehicle, because of the growing risks of eavesdropping that exist in all automobile, to restrict those confidential talks in secure locations. That’s a prudent and sensible thing for everyone concerned about safety.
After it was put to him that it would be wise for the ministry to stop using all Chinese vehicles, Pollard responded: ‘That’s exactly what we are looking into at the moment.”
Broader Security Background
The revelation follows claims from Norway and Denmark have alerted the United Kingdom to the presence of multi-purpose shutdown mechanisms in Chinese buses, which could enable China to disable public transport and bring disruption to public transit.
Furthermore, a Russian spy ship was reportedly shining lasers at Royal Air Force aircrew, described as a “extremely risky” action by defence officials.
This wider security environment underscores the importance of robust measures and caution in every areas of official activities, including transport usage to discussions practices.
