After a year-long campaign to get National Security at the heart of the Procurement Bill, Alicia Kearns MP’s proposals to create a National Security Procurement Unit and strengthen the Mandatory Debarment List have been accepted by the Government.
The new powers mean that Ministers will be able to ban suppliers who pose a risk to national security from obtaining sensitive public contracts.
The Cabinet Office will establish a National Security Unit for Procurement which will investigate suppliers who pose a specific risk to sensitive areas of government, such as GCHQ.
Alicia Kearns MP, Member of Parliament for Rutland and Melton and Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee said:
“I’m delighted the Government has listened and acted following my efforts to put national security at the heart of the Procurement Bill.
From local councils to power plants, and security bodies like GCHQ, we must make sure hostile states cannot embed state-subsidised hostile technologies into our lives which capture and exfiltrate our data to the Chinese Communist Party and other hostile states and actors.
The creation of a National Security Procurement unit, and the beefing up of the debarment list were my main asks and will help ensure downright dangerous technologies will not operate at sensitive sites, key national infrastructure, nor on our streets or in our communities.
I will now withdraw my amendments, and welcome action by Government to meaningfully improve our national resilience, which will be the bedrock of our security in the decades to come.”
