Consultation outcome

National security and investment: mandatory notification sectors

From:: Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy
Published: 11 November 2020
Last updated: 2 March 2021 — See all updates

Read the full outcome

Government response to the consultation on mandatory notification in specific sectors under the National Security and Investment Bill

PDF, 1.43 MB, 111 pages

Detail of outcome

The responses from this consultation have been used to refine the definitions to provide further clarity to allow parties to self-assess whether they need to notify the Secretary of State when they are contemplating a relevant acquisition of control. The sector definitions within the government response document remain in draft so proposals during the remaining passage of the primary legislation can be taken into account. The final definitions will be set out in regulations in due course.

The consultation set out the 17 sectors which are most likely to give rise to national security risks. Those included:

Advanced Materials
Advanced Robotics
Artificial Intelligence
Civil Nuclear
Communications
Computing Hardware
Critical Suppliers to Government
Critical Suppliers to the Emergency Services
Cryptographic Authentication
Data Infrastructure
Defence
Energy
Military and Dual-Use
Quantum Technologies
Satellite and Space Technologies
Synthetic Biology (formerly known as Engineering Biology. This sector has been renamed in response to the consultation responses)
Transport

Detail of feedback received

The consultation closed on 6 January 2021. We received 94 written responses to the consultation from:

legal and advisory firms
investors
government bodies
research bodies
trade associations
industry groups
individual businesses
individuals

Original consultation

Consultation description

This consultation is part of the government’s reform of its powers to scrutinise and intervene in business transactions to protect national security.

We are consulting on which sectors, and which parts of each sector, should be included within scope of the ‘mandatory regime’ set out in the National Security and Investment Bill. This will require acquirers making investments in those sectors to notify and receive approval from government before completing certain types of transactions.

The consultation sets out the government’s proposed definitions for the types of entity within each sector that could come under the Bill’s mandatory regime. Your feedback will inform the ultimate definitions and policy decisions that the government will bring forward into secondary legislation.

Please read the consultation document in conjunction with the National Security and Investment Bill.

See the BEIS consultation privacy notice.

Please do not send responses by post to the department at the moment as we may not be able to access them.

Documents