Procurement Act 2023: Supplier Investigations

(Limited Text - Ministerial Extracts only)

Wednesday 26th February 2025 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Georgia Gould)]

We will never forget the 72 lives lost as a result of the Grenfell tragedy, and we are grateful to Sir Martin Moore-Bick and the Grenfell inquiry team for publishing the hugely important phase 2 report into the tragedy.

In line with the Prime Minister’s statement in response to the publication of that report, we have reviewed the report to identify where the inquiry found failings by specific named organisations in relation to the Grenfell fire on 14 June 2017. I can announce today our intention to launch investigations into seven organisations using new debarment powers in the Procurement Act 2023. These investigations will establish whether the organisations have engaged in professional misconduct for the purposes of that Act.

The organisations we intend to investigate immediately are: Arconic Architectural Products SAS; Saint-Gobain Construction Products UK Ltd, in relation to the actions of Celotex Limited—which it owned at the relevant time—Exova (UK) Ltd; Harley Facades Ltd; Kingspan Insulation Ltd; Rydon Maintenance Ltd; and Studio E Architects Ltd.

These organisations will be notified when an investigation is launched under the new Act. Investigations into other organisations may be launched in due course and affected organisations will be notified accordingly.

The review process so far has been conducted under current laws that govern public procurement in the UK. However, those laws were on 24 February 2025 replaced, through a major reform of procurement legislation, with the new Procurement Act 2023.

We will make early use of the new powers in this Act that enable us to take stronger and broader action in relation to supplier misconduct, which we will, where appropriate, utilise to effectively hold organisations to account. The new Act allows us to investigate suppliers and, if certain grounds are met, to add their names to a published and centrally managed debarment list, which must be taken into account by contracting authorities in awarding new contracts and undertaking new procurements.

We want to act swiftly and decisively, and we are committed, where appropriate, to pursuing meaningful action in respect of failings related to the Grenfell tragedy. Today’s announcement marks an important step towards that.

[HCWS474]