Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the changes made to the steel procurement guidelines in the last two years are being adhered to by (a) local authorities and (b) central government departments.

Central government departments are required to report on a regular basis, alongside the collection of forward pipeline information, to confirm that they are compliant with the steel procurement guidance and provide evidence on how they are applying this guidance on their projects.

Local Authorities and other parts of the wider public sector are not currently required to provide this information, given their separate legal nature.

This information is published in the guidance on Procuring steel in major projects, which can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/procurement-policy-note-1116-procuring-steel-in-major-projects-revised-guidance.