A Bill to amend the Civil Partnership Act 2004 to include sibling couples
Link: Civil Partnership Act 2004 (Amendment) (Sibling Couples)
Source: Public Bills
Bat Habitats Regulation
A Bill to make provision to enhance the protection available for bat habitats in the vicinity of a building site and to limit the protection for bat habitats in buildings used for public worship
Link: Bat Habitats Regulation
Source: Public Bills
House of Lords
A Bill to restrict membership of the House of Lords by virtue of a peerage; to make related provision about disqualifications for voting at elections to, and for membership of, the House of Commons; and for connected purposes
Link: House of Lords
Source: Public Bills
Succession to Peerages
A Bill to amend the law regarding the succession to Peerages; and for connected purposes
Link: Succession to Peerages
Source: Public Bills
Press release: Public procurers learn how to spot bid-rigging
Updated: incorrect email removed
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) have worked together to create the e-learning module which will help more than 4,000 central government procurers root out attempts to win contracts through anti-competitive conduct.
In 2013/14 the UK public sector spent £242 billion on procurement of goods and services. Evidence suggests that cartels – of which bid-rigging forms a part – overcharge by up to 30%, costing taxpayers millions of pounds and leading to poor service.
John Kirkpatrick, CMA Senior Director Research, Intelligence and Advocacy, said:
It is vital that taxpayers’ money is spent well on projects that are of benefit to the public, rather than costs being pushed up unfairly by bid-rigging. We hope this bid-rigging e-learning package will prove to be a very useful tool for procurers in helping them spot and prevent attempts to rig procurement processes.
The CMA has a hotline which people can call if they suspect cases of bid-rigging or other anti-competitive practices, so I urge anyone with doubts to call.
Ian Mackie, CCS Head of Commercial Learning and Development, said:
Increasing commercial capability is a priority skills area for the civil service, so we, along with our departmental colleagues, were delighted to work with CMA to support this learning module. Hosting this on the Civil Service Learning Commercial College will enhance the contract management learning already available to staff.
Bid-rigging involves competing businesses which are invited to bid in competitive tenders secretly colluding so that, contrary to appearances, they are not fully competing for the contract. Bid-rigging tends to drive up prices by removing genuine competition between bidders.
It is a serious infringement of competition law, which can lead to fines and liability to damages for the companies involved. It can also result in criminal sanctions (including possible imprisonment) for individuals.
The e-learning module can be found on the Commercial College, hosted on Civil Service Learning.
The module, which is intended to take no more than 40 minutes to complete, will help students to gain an awareness of why bid-rigging is harmful, what kinds of activities and patterns of behaviour they should watch out for, what they can do to mitigate risks and where they can go to get help if they suspect a case.
Notes for editors
- The CMA is the UK’s primary competition and consumer authority. It is an independent non-ministerial government department with responsibility for carrying out investigations into mergers, markets and the regulated industries and enforcing competition and consumer law. For more information see the CMA’s homepage on GOV.UK. For CMA updates, follow us on Twitter @CMAgovuk, Flickr and LinkedIn.
- Please contact the cartels hotline on 0800 085 1664 or 020 3738 6888 or email cartelshotline@cma.gsi.gov.uk, if you suspect instances of bid-rigging.
- To learn more, look at CMA guidance ‘Bid-rigging: advice for public sector procurers’.
- For more information on the Crown Commercial Service see its webpages.
- Enquiries should be directed Simon Belgard (simon.belgard@cma.gsi.gov.uk, 020 3738 6472).
Link: Press release: Public procurers learn how to spot bid-rigging
Source: Gov Press Releases
Weekly Threat Report 18th May 2018
It’s not just production that needs securing
Most large companies will use an online development environment to build and test code prior to deployment on outward and inward facing networks.
Much of the code found in development environments is sensitive and critical to running and managing a business. The unauthorised disclosure of code could allow cyber actors to identify exploitable weaknesses.
Recent open source reporting has highlighted a compromise of a company’s…
Link: Weekly Threat Report 18th May 2018
Source: NCSC Reports
Weekly Threat Report 11th May 2018
UK cyber criminal pleads guilty to selling customer credentials on the Dark Web
A cyber criminal who hacked into the online networks of at least 200 companies worldwide recently pleaded guilty to multiple offences in court.
Grant West, 25, who operated under the pseudonym ‘Courvoisier’, was detained in September 2017 following a two-year investigation by Scotland Yard. He was arrested on a train whilst logging on to his dark web marketplace account.
Southwark Crown Court heard…
Link: Weekly Threat Report 11th May 2018
Source: NCSC Reports
Weekly Threat Report 4th May 2018
‘Orangeworm’ Group Targeting Healthcare Industry
Symantec have reported that a group they have tracked as ‘Orangeworm’ since 2015 are targeting the healthcare industry in the United States, Asia and Europe, including the UK.
40% of their attacks focus on the healthcare industry. Other industries targeted are either closely related to healthcare or part of the supply chain, including IT, manufacturing, logistics and agriculture. It is likely that the supply chain has been…
Link: Weekly Threat Report 4th May 2018
Source: NCSC Reports
Weekly Threat Report 27th April 2018
Cost of ransomware attack on Atlanta
As reported in the Weekly Threat Report of 6 April 2018, the US city of Atlanta recently fell victim to an attack by the SamSam ransomware, which exploits a vulnerability in Java servers.
New reports indicate the city spent in the region of $2.66m responding to the attack. Costs included incident response, recovery and crisis management, but the city did not pay the ransom demand, reported to be approximately $55,000. There was also a broader cost in…
Link: Weekly Threat Report 27th April 2018
Source: NCSC Reports
Weekly Threat Report 20th April 2018
Cyber criminal groups identified on social media
Last week Facebook deleted around 120 private discussion groups – equating to more than 300,000 members – that were promoting a host of illicit cyber criminal activities, including spamming, selling stolen debit and credit account credentials, phony tax refunds, DDoS-for-hire services and botnet creation tools.
The groups had reportedly been operating on Facebook for an average of two years, although some had been in operation for up to nine…
Link: Weekly Threat Report 20th April 2018
Source: NCSC Reports