Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will take steps to ensure that companies involved in major (a) governance and (b) accountability failures are subject to enhanced scrutiny before providing critical public services.

Government efficiency, transparency and accountability are key pillars of the Procurement Act 2023 which came into force this year. The Act establishes a new exclusions framework that makes it easier to exclude suppliers who have underperformed in the delivery of other public contracts or acted improperly in procurement. The Act has also created a debarment list which will publicly list suppliers who must or may be excluded from contracts.

The new Central Digital Platform is also improving accessibility to procurement data, ensuring accountability and enabling the public and stakeholders to scrutinise spending decisions and track procurement outcomes.