(2 months, 1 week ago)
Lords ChamberThe Procurement Act has provisions around defence to enable a contracting authority to exclude suppliers from procurement if they present a threat to national security. This can identify suppliers that must be excluded from certain contracts, as well as suppliers that contracting authorities should consider excluding from the procurement. I hope that at least partly addresses the noble Lord’s point.
My Lords, can the Minister max out, as it were, on the provisions to help small businesses achieve procurement? As well as doing that, can she look at the Subsidy Control Act and its effect on early-stage procurement and pre-procurement? Can she look at the chilling effect of contracts requiring the sharing and licensing of innovative companies’ development of intellectual property with competitors in order to comply with the Subsidy Control Act?