Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to help small technology companies to work with the Department.

UK Defence Innovation (UKDI) represents a fundamental transformation of how the Ministry of Defence (MOD) approaches innovation. We recognised that for too long, innovative companies and start-ups faced significant barriers when trying to engage with defence innovation programmes.

UKDI works closely with UK industry and academia, including Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), to identify and invest in innovative technologies that address our most pressing capability challenges as well as publishing our future priorities to incentivise investment. We are transforming processes to drive this at pace and are already testing and deploying these technologies.

The Defence Industrial Strategy (DIS) commits to significantly increasing SME participation and spending, recognising their critical role in strengthening capability and economic prosperity.

We have established a dedicated Office for Small Business Growth in January to remove barriers, improve access, and drive delivery against our SME ambitions across Defence.