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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what progress he has made on updating procurement strategies for the Advanced Research and Invention Agency prior to projects beginning.

The Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) is expected to commission and support others to conduct research in pursuit of its highly ambitious goals, bringing together parties from public and private spheres. This may involve procuring R&D services and equipment to support research goals.

The Bill exempts ARIA from the Public Contracts Regulations, to enable ARIA to procure services, equipment and works relating to its research goals at speed, in a similar way to the private sector.

In addition to the statutory requirement for ARIA’s statement of accounts and annual report to be provided to my Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State, and laid before Parliament, ARIA will report publicly on its procurement activities.