Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 19 January 2022 to Question 102572, Bain and Company, if he will make an assessment of the potential risks to the (a) aims set out in the Government’s Integrated Review and (b) public perception of those aims, specifically of tackling (i) global corruption, (ii) illicit finance and (iii) the use of UK corporate structures in facilitating high-end money laundering, of continued participation in UK public procurement by Bain and Company.

Officials are engaging with Bain & Company better to understand the status of the findings in the recently published Zondo Commission reports and to seek appropriate assurances to the Government that Bain has taken steps to remedy any shortcomings identified therein.

The grounds for exclusion of organisations from bidding for Government contracts are set out in The Public Contracts Regulations 2015. These rules set out the circumstances in which bidders must, or may, be excluded from a public procurement process for a variety of criminal offences and in other specific situations. In all cases, individual departments and other public sector bodies are responsible for their own decisions on these matters, which apply only to the award of new contracts.