Spotlight worked closely with academics and experts to push for a debarment regime to be implemented in the UK’s post-Brexit procurement regime. We engaged closely with the government consultation on this and the government has now committed to introducing a debarment register in its new Procurement Bill. Our work on this contributed significantly to the outcome.
We also engaged in pre-action legal correspondence seeking to have an accountancy firm, EY, excluded from public contracts on grounds of grave professional misconduct after negligence in relation to money laundering. The letter led to extensive engagement with EY by government officials. Shortly after, the government excluded another accountant, KPMG, from public contracts, and has gone on to exclude Bain and Co, a consultancy company involved in state capture in South Africa. This suggests that real consideration is now given on a regular basis to how this important tool can be used to enhance corporate behaviour.