Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether tax paid into the UK is a consideration when awarding Government contracts.

The Public Contract Regulations 2015 introduced an obligation for public bodies to exclude suppliers from a procurement where the supplier has been found guilty of breaching its obligations in relation to payment of taxes and this has been established by a judicial or administrative decision. Central procurement policy requires any business bidding for central Government contracts over £5 million to self-certify whether there have been any occasions of non-compliance with regard to their tax obligations. The aim of the procurement policy is to promote tax compliance. Suppliers that engage in non-compliant activity risk losing access to larger Government contracts.

Many businesses, including those delivering Government contracts, operate on an international basis and parts of those businesses will be operating in countries outside of the United Kingdom. Their tax liability will be subject to the rules of the tax jurisdiction in which they are operating.