Kate Hollern – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Hollern on 2016-04-28.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate he has made of the number of small and medium-sized enterprises in his Department’s supply chain, other than direct suppliers, in (a) 2015-16, (b) 2014-15 and (c) 2013-14.

Mr Philip Dunne

Small businesses are an important source of innovation and flexibility, as both direct and indirect suppliers, to meet our defence and security requirements. The estimated number of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) directly supplying the Ministry of Defence (MOD) during financial years 2013-14 and 2014-15 is provided below. The figures for 2015-16 are not yet available.

The MOD spent 19.4% (direct and indirect) of its procurement budget with SMEs in both 2013-14 and 2014-15. The MOD has a new 25% target for SME procurement spend by 2020.

The information has been taken from the Department’s published Official Statistics on Trade, Industry and Contracts which summarises MOD contracting with industry. Further information about MOD expenditure with SMEs is available on the Gov.UK website at the respective links:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/mod-industry-trade-and-contracts-2015 and https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/mod-industry-trade-and-contracts-2014

The MOD does not hold information on the number of SMEs providing indirect supplies through the supply chain.

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