Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the figure of 33 per cent of Government procurement spend going to SME's is a target or an aspiration.

This Government is committed to supporting small businesses and continue to target 33% of Government procurement spend going to SMEs by 2022.

In April I announced a number of measures to help achieve this, such as:

• To require greater transparency by prime contractors to increase SMEs visibility in the supply chain;
• To improve the visibility of supply chain opportunities to SMEs; and
• To further improve prompt payment to SMEs in the supply chain.

We have already streamlined our procurement processes to assist small businesses, and we continue to focus on breaking down the barriers that might deter SMEs from bidding for Government contracts.