What each regime expects a firm to be able to show about its suppliers.
FCA and PRA outsourcing rules. The FCA expects firms that use outsourced and third-party providers to take responsibility for managing the risk, with more risk management as dependence grows, under SYSC 8 and related rules (FCA: outsourcing and operational resilience). The PRA’s supervisory statement SS2/21 expects firms to assess the materiality and risk of every third-party arrangement and to notify the PRA before entering a material outsourcing (Bank of England: SS2/21). See TPRM for financial services.
Operational resilience. In-scope firms had until 31 March 2025 to show they can stay within impact tolerances for each important business service (FCA: operational resilience). Suppliers that support those services need to be mapped and tested. See operational resilience.
Cyber Security and Resilience Bill. Introduced to Parliament on 12 November 2025, it reforms and adds to the NIS Regulations 2018, with provisions on managed service providers and designated critical suppliers (gov.uk: Cyber Security and Resilience Bill). See what the Bill means for suppliers.
Cyber Essentials. The government-backed scheme covers five technical controls (NCSC: Cyber Essentials), and many UK buyers ask suppliers for it. See the Cyber Essentials checklist and Cyber Essentials Plus.
UK GDPR. Article 28 requires a contract with every processor that sets out, among other terms, that it processes only on your documented instructions and uses sub-processors only as agreed (ICO: what needs to be included in the contract). See TPRM for data protection teams.
DORA, for UK suppliers to EU firms. DORA has applied since 17 January 2025 and requires EU financial entities to keep a register of their ICT arrangements (EBA: DORA registers of information). A UK supplier to an EU bank or insurer will be asked for the data that fills it. See DORA vendor management requirements.