National Security and Investment Bill

(asked on 13th April 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the effect of the Government’s decision to amend the National Security and Investment Bill on the Government's ability to protect the UK's (a) economy and (b) critical national infrastructure from hostile actors.


Answered by
Paul Scully Portrait
Paul Scully
This question was answered on 19th April 2021

On the basis of the available data, which is limited to evidence from: Capital IQ on mergers and acquisitions with a value of £1 million and above; Pitchbook on transactions with a value below £1 million, and; Orbis on the number of indirect mergers and acquisitions, the proposed amendment, which would remove the 15% mandatory notification threshold from the National Security and Investment Bill is assessed as de minimis. Nonetheless, we do expect this to reduce the number of acquisitions subject to mandatory notification.

Irrespective of this change, the Bill continues to include the power for the Secretary of State to call in acquisitions at or below 25% of shares or votes in qualifying entities across the economy where they reasonably suspect that it has resulted in, or may result in, the acquisition of material influence over the policy of the entity and they reasonably suspect that this that this has given, or may give rise to, a risk to national security.

Therefore, we do not expect there to be any impact on the Government's ability to protect the UK's economy and critical national infrastructure from hostile actors.

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