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Written question asked by Alex Burghart (Conservative) on Tuesday, 17 December 2024, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 6 January 2025 (named day). It was answered by Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour) on Monday, 6 January 2025 on behalf of the Cabinet Office.


Foreign Investment in UK: National Security

Question

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many referrals to his Department under the National Security and Investment Act 2021 of acquisitions of UK firms in the (a) defence, (b) cybersecurity and (c) AI sectors have resulted in a transaction being (i) modified, (ii) delayed and (iii) blocked since 5 July 2024.

Answer

Transparency is a crucial part of the National Security and Investment (NSI) Act, whilst also balancing commercial and reputational considerations.

Information related to publication of final orders is available on GOV.UK. The Government also publishes annual reports to provide information about the transactions that it has been notified about and those it subsequently called in for a national security assessment. The NSI Annual Report 2023-24 was published on 10 September 2024. The period from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025 will be covered in next year’s annual report.

The annual reports include the proportion of notifications for each sector, however, cybersecurity falls under the artificial intelligence sector and is not reported separately.

The reports do not specifically include the number or proportion of transactions that relate to links to a company owned in (a) part or (b) whole by a foreign state, however, they include the number of accepted notifications, call-in notices issued, final notifications issued, withdrawals from a called in acquisition and final orders issued by origin of investment.


Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
20702
Session
2024-26
Related items
Foreign Investment in UK: National Security
Monday, 7 April 2025
Written questions
House of Commons
Foreign Investment in UK: National Security
Wednesday, 7 May 2025
Written questions
House of Commons
Grouped for answer
Yes
Subjects
Defence National security Foreign investment in UK Artificial intelligence Cybersecurity
Legislation
National Security and Investment Act 2021
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk