The UK could bring tougher prison sentences on ship owners who damage subsea pipelines and cabling.
Under the plans to change the 140-year-old legislation, jail time would increase to up to 14 years for those who cause intentional damage.
Alongside this, subsea telecoms companies would be required to comply with new security and resilience duties, including stronger requirements to identify and manage risks to their networks.
The government says growing threats to critical undersea infrastructure, including suspicious Russian activity in UK waters, mean the laws protecting the connections need to keep pace with a changing security environment.
Michael Shanks, Energy Minister, said: “Undersea pipelines and cables are critical to keeping energy flowing to homes and businesses across the UK. This legislation will further strengthen deterrence and help ensure we can prevent, detect and respond to threats against our energy supply.”
The country’s energy supply is highly dependent on undersea infrastructure, with undersea pipelines providing 74% of the UK’s gas supply and undersea electricity cables providing vital supply from Europe and the UK’s offshore wind farms.
There are also fibre-optic cables running along the seabed that connect the UK to the rest of the world, carrying around 99% of international data and messages, video calls, online banking and shopping.
The publication of the White Paper marks the start of a 12-week public consultation on the proposals, where Labour seek views from industry, experts and the wider public to help shape the final proposals.
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