UK Procurement Bill Amendments For National Security

We’ve been following the the UK Government’s proposed new Procurement Bill as it has made its way through the House of Commons and the House of Lords. Yesterday, the Government announced new amendments tabled, with the objective of strengthening national security.

The amendments include the creation of a specialist unit, the National Security Unit For Procurement, to investigate suppliers who may pose risk to national security. This new team, which will be based in the Cabinet Office, proposes to proactively investigate suppliers who may pose a risk to national security, and assess whether companies should be barred from public procurements.

Further amendments will allow for  the debarring of suppliers who may pose a risk, from bidding on contracts from sensitive sectors, such as national security, while being able to win contracts in non-sensitive areas.

The Government will also commit to publish a timeline for the removal of surveillance equipment produced by companies subject to China’s National Intelligence Law from sensitive central government sites.

The Procurement Bill, will have its Report Stage in the House of Commons next week. If you are looking for government procurement data, Spend Network holds data for more than 150 countries globally. We take the hard work out of collecting, organising and analysing procurement data at scale. Our analysis can predict poor performance and bad tendering, and also savings opportunities. We can monitor market efficiency and look for new suppliers to increase competition. Get in touch to find out more.

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