Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department has taken to safeguard British semiconductor firms from hostile foreign involvement; and how many transactions in that sector have been referred to his Department under the National Security and Investment Act 2021 since 5 July 2024.

The National Security and Investment (NSI) Act 2021 gives the Government powers to scrutinise and potentially intervene in acquisitions of control over entities and assets in or linked to the UK that may pose national security risks.

All areas of the economy are within scope, and qualifying acquisitions of entities in 17 areas of the economy - of which semiconductors are typically covered by both the Advanced Materials and Computing Hardware areas - must be notified to and receive approval from the Government.

The Government publishes annual reports to provide information about the transactions that it has been notified about and those it subsequently called in for a national security assessment. The period from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025 will be covered in the next annual report, which will be published later this year.