Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make an assessment of the effectiveness of the Procurement Act 2023 for tackling cybersecurity threats in public tenders.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Procurement Act 2023 brings in new powers to exclude and debar companies from public procurement on grounds of national security. The new National Security Unit for Procurement (NSUP), in the Cabinet Office, will work across government to coordinate assessments of companies and support ministers in national security debarment decisions.
In addition, Procurement Policy Note 09/14 requires central government contracting authorities to ensure that for contracts with certain characteristics, suppliers must meet the technical requirements prescribed by Cyber Essentials, including where suppliers store, or process, personal information or data at Official level.
The Cabinet Office encourages all organisations to follow National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) guidance which sets out the security matters to be considered during the procurement process. The National Protective Security Agency (NPSA) has also published guidance to prevent hostile actors exploiting vulnerabilities in supply chains.
The National Procurement Policy Statement sets out the national priorities that all contracting authorities should have regard to in their procurement where it is relevant to the subject matter of the contract and proportionate to do so. The current statement does not include cyber security as a separate, wider policy because the need for cyber security protection is fundamental to procurements where it applies and therefore built into the procurement process as described above. The new legislative statement that will come into force alongside the Procurement Act is currently being drafted and will be subject to a consultation process as set out in Section 13 of the Act.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the judgment in Consultant Connect Ltd v NHS Bath et al of 29 July 2022, what actions the integrated care boards who were defendants in that case have taken to ensure that members of the public and commercial suppliers have confidence in their procurement processes.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Each commissioning organisation involved in the procurement process produced their own lessons learnt report, and the decisions around the publication of lessons learned reports are for individual integrated care boards (ICBs). With reference to guidance and support to ICBs on procurement, NHS England published the Strategic framework for the NHS Commercial Sector on 28 November 2023, a copy of which is attached.
The framework aims to encourage regional collaboration between integrated care systems by creating regional collaborative commercial organisations. These will operate as group procurement organisations in providing the necessary system leadership, capability and capacity to deliver strategic commercial outcomes and supply chain efficiencies, and will be designed against a national blueprint to ensure consistency.
Every National Health Service provider will be expected to be a member of a collaborative organisation and a senior, experienced, qualified commercial leader will be appointed to run and promote each organisation at an executive-level, with ownership for commercial strategy and all non-pay spend.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to their paper Review of risk of modern slavery and human trafficking in the NHS supply chain, published on 14 December 2023, and specifically their assessment of human rights violations in Xinjiang, whether an assessment was made of the number of people at risk of forced organ harvesting.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The United Kingdom is committed to tackling the issue of Uyghur forced labour in supply chains, and is taking robust action. We have introduced new guidance on the risks of doing business in Xinjiang, enhanced export controls, and announced the introduction of financial penalties under the Modern Slavery Act. The Procurement Act, which received Royal Assent in 2023, will enable public sector contracting authorities to reject bids and terminate contracts with suppliers which are known to use forced labour themselves or anywhere in their supply chain.
The review, which examined the NHS Supply Chain's supplier base, primarily focussed on medical devices and consumables. It did not specifically address the risk of forced organ harvesting because the National Health Service does not engage with supply chains from China for the procurement of human organs.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Neville-Rolfe on 11 December (HL589) where they stated that "before laying the National Procurement Policy Statement in Parliament a Minister of the Crown must carry out such consultation as the Minister considers appropriate", how they intend to consult relevant stakeholders, such as providers of goods and services, prior to laying that statement.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Cabinet Office will develop and deliver its approach to consultation in line with the requirements in Section 13 of the Procurement Act.
Asked by: Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will take steps in his Department's forthcoming national deer management strategy to help ensure the adequacy of (a) capacity to process deer carcasses if culling levels increase and (b) the supply of venison to the (i) private and (ii) public sector in the next five years.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra is working with stakeholders including Grown in Britain, game dealers and shooting and conservation associations to support development of the wild venison supply chain.
This includes facilitating an industry GB Wild Venison Working Group to improve sector resilience, develop branding, traceability and promote the British Quality Wild Venison Standard and exploring opportunities for more public procurement of wild venison, with the aim of increasing overall demand for wild venison. We are also providing funding towards wild venison related projects in a number of our National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, through the Farming in Protected Landscapes scheme.
The forthcoming deer management strategy will set out actions that will go further in supporting domestic wild venison.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of public sector procurement processes for digital goods and services.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Government recognises how vital digital products and services are for delivering public services. The Digital, Data and Technology Playbook provides best practice guidance for the procurement of digital products and services. There are annual updates to ensure it is up to date. The most recent update was in June 2023, found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-digital-data-and-technology-playbook
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of procurement processes used at The Post Office.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
As a public sector organisation Post Office is bound by the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. In addition, as set out in the Shareholder Relationship Framework Document published by Government in 2020, Post Office’s Chief Executive Officer is expected to observe the principles set out by HM Treasury in Managing Public Money.
Post Office’s procurement policy is reviewed regularly by the Post Office Board and the Board scrutinises procurements that are high-value or novel and/or contentious.
The Government has mechanisms in place to maintain oversight of the Post Office and regularly monitors Post Office's financial performance, strategy and corporate governance. In addition, as per the Articles of Association Post Office requires the prior written consent of the Shareholder for any undertaking to incur any expenditure in excess of £50 million.
Asked by: Tobias Ellwood (Conservative - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to support farmers with rising input costs.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is supporting farmers through a range of measures. We are updating prices in our environmental land management schemes with an average 10% uplift. We are making Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) simpler, with more choice about what farmers can do and more actions made available, to better reflect the full spectrum of farming interests. What is more, 50 new actions are being added to our environmental land management schemes, many of which support food production, making it easier for the Government’s support to fit into farmers’ business plans. And specific actions in the SFI, such as different cropping systems, better plant management methods and other Nutrient Management and Integrated Pest Management actions, will support farmers in improving soil health, reducing their reliance on costly inputs.
We are also keen to support farmers through technology. Later this month, Defra will be inviting farmers to apply for share of an initial £15 million for innovations, like robotic mechanical weeding technology, that can be implemented right away. More grants will be launched this year to help farmers grow more, sell more and make their businesses more sustainable and resilient for the future. We will also look at ways to make grants and schemes even easier to access, including the potential to streamline the application process for schemes. Farmers can now apply for SFI and the Countryside Stewardship Mid-Tier through one single application, meaning they’ll have the same actions and get the same support with less paperwork.
More broadly, we are supporting British farmers in the marketplace. British farmers are rightly proud of producing food that meets and often exceeds our world leading animal welfare and environmental standards. And British consumers want to buy this top-quality food. This is why we will rapidly consult on clearer labelling, to protect farmers and consumers. We also want the public sector to procure more high quality, sustainable food produced by farmers, and Parliament has in fact recently passed legislation following our exit from the European Union which enables a greater emphasis on the public benefits of this public sector procurement. We will also update the government buying standards for food and catering to emphasise the importance of buying food with high environmental and welfare standards, which will further support British farmers and food producers.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the prevalence of imported cellular internet of things modules in equipment used by fire services; and what steps his Department is taking to ensure the security of such equipment.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Each fire and rescue authority and police force is responsible for identifying and planning for the foreseeable risks in their area, including risks relating to organisational security.
Operational security decisions are made independently by Fire and Police chiefs, who are consistently seeking to identify, plan for, and mitigate against reasonably foreseeable operational risks.
The Government provides guidance on best practice and due diligence to the public sector, for the procurement of supplier contracts through Governments Model Services Contract Guidance.
The Home Office works closely with the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) in relation to the cyber security of Fire and Police Services. This includes the provision of active cyber defence services, guidance and best practice advice, and the response to cyber security.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the prevalence of imported cellular internet of things modules in equipment used by police forces; and what steps his Department is taking to ensure the security of such equipment.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Each fire and rescue authority and police force is responsible for identifying and planning for the foreseeable risks in their area, including risks relating to organisational security.
Operational security decisions are made independently by Fire and Police chiefs, who are consistently seeking to identify, plan for, and mitigate against reasonably foreseeable operational risks.
The Government provides guidance on best practice and due diligence to the public sector, for the procurement of supplier contracts through Governments Model Services Contract Guidance.
The Home Office works closely with the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) in relation to the cyber security of Fire and Police Services. This includes the provision of active cyber defence services, guidance and best practice advice, and the response to cyber security.