Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department has made an assessment of whether the Procurement Act includes adequate measures to limit the procurement of Chinese-made cellular IoT modules in UK critical national infrastructure.

The Procurement Act 2023, which came into force on 24 February this year, introduces new powers to exclude, terminate or debar suppliers from public sector supply chains on a variety of grounds. In line with the Act, the Government will operate the new powers on a country-agnostic basis, with each supplier and type of technology examined individually. We remain committed to protecting our critical national infrastructure and will continue to keep under review the risks associated with internet-facing technologies and components on an ongoing basis, both where they fall in scope of the Procurement Act and through other levers.