Foreign suppliers should not be stopped providing goods or services that form part of the UK’s critical national infrastructure, according to MPs.
A report by the Intelligence and Security Committee published this week said it would not be practical to restrict the contribution to utilities, IT or transport infrastructure to UK companies. Nor would this necessarily “provide full protection given the global nature of supply chains”.
But the committee did urge the government to establish a procedure for measuring and monitor the risks through the life of the contract and beyond. The government has now developed such procedures to assess risks associated with foreign investment, but “whether these processes are sufficiently robust remains to be seen”.