Public Procurement: British Standard 95009

Lord Watts Excerpts

Tuesday 5th April 2022 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Scott of Bybrook (Con)]

My Lords, they will apply to all government procurement, including defence and security.

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

My Lords, has Covid not shown that Britain now no longer produces a range of things that are important to us in times of need? Should the Government not now be looking at what those things are and helping to make sure that they are produced in the UK so that we do not have the problem of sending billions of pounds to China when we have an epidemic like the one we have just had?

[Baroness Scott of Bybrook (Con)]

The noble Lord is absolutely right. As we put the Bill forward, we will look to ensure that when we have a situation like the recent pandemic, which I am sure the noble Lord is referring to, we have procurement arrangements that are suitable for that.