Draft Local Government (Exclusion of Non-commercial Considerations) (England) Order 2026

David Simmonds Excerpts

Tuesday 13th January 2026 General Committees

[David Simmonds (Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair this afternoon, Mr Dowd. The Opposition are supportive of the direction of travel outlined in the order, and we do not propose to divide the Committee. I have a couple of questions that I would like to put to the Minister, but as he has clearly outlined, the provisions build on the principles outlined in the Localism Act 2011 and the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 to enable local authority procurement to be used more flexibly to support local economies.

It would be helpful if the Minister could set out the consideration the Government have given to previous debates and legislation on the issue of boycotts, divestment and sanctions. He touched on that in his introduction, but it might be helpful for the record if we have real clarity about how the proposed statutory instrument ensures that the principles, which were agreed cross-party, continue to be enshrined in the procurement rules that local authorities have to follow.

Could the Minister set out in a little more detail how the Government’s English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, which is making its way through Parliament, envisages widespread reorganisation? The regulations will either be updated or are sufficiently flexible to enable the new combined authorities, and multiples of those combined authorities, to work together. There are already good examples, such as in London, where trading standards are delivered under a central contract operated by the royal borough of Kensington and Chelsea for all 33 London local authorities. We have the Kent commercial framework, which is an existing and established commercial procurement process that multiple different local authorities use. I want to ensure that there is nothing in the order that would frustrate existing and effective commercial arrangements that also support local economies.

Can the Minister set out whether the Government are giving any consideration, following the greater flexibility that we have around procurement following EU exit, to implementing the EU model of service concessions in the procurement of local authorities, which always gave a much greater degree of flexibility around procurement in respect of statutory functions? That is a provision that, historically, has never been open to local authorities in the United Kingdom. It is used as a means of achieving many of the same ends that the order seeks to work towards, but without anything like the level of bureaucracy that is inherent in some multi-stage competitive tendering processes.

Finally, the Minister outlined, and I totally agree with him, the importance of this order for local authorities in implementing measures that support local economies and key industries in their area. Can he set out for the Committee what, if any, follow-up there is going to be? We know that in the past one of the challenges for the Government was that, although greater flexibility was introduced, the take-up or use of that flexibility was extremely limited in practice. What measures will there be to assess the impact that this order has, to ensure that it is operating in the way intended or, if not, to prompt a reconsideration or re-examination of the opportunities to take this kind of approach on a greater and more productive scale in the future?