Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to his Department's publication entitled National Security and Investment Act 2021: Annual Report 2023-24, published on 10 September 2024, for what reason there was the reduction in the average time taken to issue a final order under the National Security and Investment Act from 81 statutory working days to 34 statutory working days.

The time taken to issue a final order for each called in acquisition will depend on the facts of the case. Given the small number of final orders (five) issued in this reporting period (1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024), no conclusions should be drawn about any trends in the time taken between calling in an acquisition and issuing a final order.

It is worth noting that with only two years’ worth of data, and each acquisition assessed on its own merits, the Government expects to see some variation in the majority of statistics from year to year.