# Procurement Act 2023, Section 79: Terminating public contracts: national security

Extent: E+W+S+N.I.

(1) A relevant contracting authority may not terminate a contract by reference to the implied term in section 78 on the basis of the discretionary exclusion ground in paragraph 14 of Schedule 7 (threat to national security) unless—
(a) the authority has notified a Minister of the Crown of its intention, and
(b) the Minister considers that—
(i) the supplier or sub-contractor is an excludable supplier by reference to paragraph 14 of Schedule 7, and
(ii) the contract should be terminated.
(2) A relevant contracting authority may not terminate a contract by reference to the implied term in section 78 on the basis of the mandatory exclusion ground in paragraph 35 of Schedule 6 (threat to national security) unless the authority has notified a Minister of the Crown of its intention.
(3) In this section, a “relevant contracting authority” means a contracting authority other than—
(a) a Minister of the Crown or a government department,
(b) the Corporate Officer of the House of Commons, or
(c) the Corporate Officer of the House of Lords.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2023/54/section/79 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/procurement-act-2023/section-79
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.