The Government has accepted Alicia Kearns MP's amendments to the Procurement Bill.

After a year-long campaign to get National Security at the heart of the Procurement Bill, Alicia Kearns MP's proposals to create a National Security Procurement Unit and strengthen the Mandatory Debarment List have been accepted by the Government. 

The new powers mean that Ministers will be able to ban suppliers who pose a risk to national security from obtaining sensitive public contracts. 

The Cabinet Office will establish a National Security Unit for Procurement which will investigate suppliers who pose a specific risk to sensitive areas of government, such as GCHQ. 

Following Alicia's campaign for the closure of illegal Chinese Police Stations operating in the UK, on 6 June it was also announced that all stations have now been closed due to pressure from Parliament and the Police. 

The Security Minister's statement made it clear that these stations must not re-open and have no right to operate in this country. 

Alicia Kearns MP, Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee and Member of Parliament for Rutland and Melton said: "I'm delighted the Government has listened and acted following my efforts to put national security at the heart of the Procurement Bill. 

"From local councils to power plants, and security bodies like GCHQ, we must make sure hostile states cannot embed state-subsidised hostile technologies into our lives which capture and exfiltrate our data to the Chinese Communist Party and other hostile states and actors. 

"The creation of a National Security Procurement unit, and the beefing up of the debarment list were my main asks and will help ensure downright dangerous technologies will not operate at sensitive sites, key national infrastructure, nor on our streets or in our communities. 

"I will now withdraw my amendments, and welcome action by Government to meaningfully improve our national resilience, which will be the bedrock of our security in the decades to come."

This follows Ms Kearns's February warning against the use of TikTok and platforms owned by the Chinese company, ByteDance.

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