Sir Nicholas Soames: 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.

Nadhim Zahawi, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Business and Industry): 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.