My Lords, I think that was the noble Lord trying to wriggle off the hook but impaling himself back on it at the end of his remarks. We have
to make this House work via the usual channels, and it is reasonable for an elected Government in another place to listen respectfully to the other House, which it should—it is our duty to ask the other House to think again on certain things—but there is a point where we do not say that it should be taken to the wire. However, if I am ever a Back-Bencher and there is something from a Labour Government that I do not like, perhaps I will take away the Hunt dictum—one of the advantages of continuing on Wednesday what you did on Monday is that you can read Hansard, and I read carefully what the noble Lord said—and practise what he preaches. Anyway, let us get on with the business at hand. It is an important issue on which the Front Bench opposite might wish to reflect.
Amendment 45, tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Wallace, and the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett, seeks to ensure that contracting authorities consider a number of additional requirements when carrying out procurements, including reducing net carbon budgets, supplier human rights records, data security in the platform, and transparency. In our view, as I have argued before in Committee, contracting authorities are able to deal with these matters as things stand, and in a way that is more targeted and effective than through inclusion in a broad obligation to “have regard”. In a sense, that is the difference between us. Although the noble Lord, Lord Wallace, said that his were modest demands, and deliberately did not include net zero, for example, that is brought in by the analogous amendment tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Worthington.
Contracting authorities will be able to take account of suppliers’ carbon-reduction plans and other environmental objectives where they are relevant to the subject matter of the contract. It is unnecessary and potentially unhelpful to contracting authorities to attempt to impose on them all an obligation to have regard to a range of other factors, including net zero—as mentioned in the amendment tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Worthington—in and throughout all of their procurement activities.
In particular, it places unnecessary burdens on them in relation to areas where this is of limited relevance and would open up smaller contractors unnecessarily to the risk of legal challenge. After all, these matters are also covered in another legislation. Contracting authorities will need—this is in the Bill—to consider the ethical and human rights record of the supplier, in some respects, when considering whether a supplier is eligible to participate in the procurement. We will discuss this issue later. The Bill contains effective provision on the exclusion and debarment of those who do not.
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Maintaining data security within a digital platform, which is another of the reasonable points that the noble Lord put forward, is a matter for the Cabinet Office team that runs the platform in accordance with the Data Protection Act. It is not something that could easily or legitimately be placed at the feet of the contracting authorities. It should be regulated and policed through the platform.
On transparency, this is an area where I agree with the noble Lord that some overarching obligation is helpful. But we submit that that can already be found
in the Bill at Clause 11(1)(c). Furthermore, because the Government place importance on this concept, it can also be found in procedural obligations at each stage of the procurement process that will provide clarity to contracting authorities on exactly what they need to publish.
I turn to Amendments 47A and 52A, tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Thornton, and alluded to by the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman of Ullock, which seek to change the term “public benefit” to “public value” and add “maximising social value” as a procurement objective. As the noble Baroness told us on Monday, “public benefit” is already on the statute book without an accompanying definition in a number of places, including Section 4 of the Charities Act 2011, which I think she referred to. It is therefore a term that, while perhaps not in everyday use for public bodies, has a certain degree of understanding. The “public benefit” objective in Clause 11(1)(b) already means that contracting authorities need to think about how public money can achieve additional benefit in the way that the contract is delivered, which would include how to maximise social value, so we think an additional objective of “maximising social value” would be duplicative.
On Amendment 49, tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Worthington, as we have discussed, the Government’s view is that it would not be appropriate to include wider policy objectives such as she proposes in primary legislation for public procurement.