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Foreign Companies: National Security

Question for Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

UIN 825, tabled on 16 October 2019

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what screening of overseas companies her Department undertakes in relation to national security in advance of foreign direct investment by those companies.

Answered on

21 October 2019

Under the Enterprise Act 2002, the Government has the power to intervene in mergers that raise public interest concerns including national security. The Government looks at each merger on a case by case basis.

Since 2015, the Government has intervened under the Enterprise Act 2002 on the grounds of national security on four occasions: Sepura/Hytera (2017), Northern Aerospace/Gardner Aerospace (2018), Inmarsat/Connect Bidco (2019) and Cobham/AI Convoy Bidco (2019).

Each year, Cabinet Office publishes sector security and resilience plans. The plans set out the thirteen critical national infrastructure sectors and their resilience in relation to the risks identified in the National Risk Assessment. The plans can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/sector-resilience-plans.

Answered by

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
Named day
Named day questions only occur in the House of Commons. The MP tabling the question specifies the date on which they should receive an answer. MPs may not table more than five named day questions on a single day.