Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent steps his Department has taken to make public sector procurement more inclusive of ethnic minority businesses.

Since 2010 the Cabinet Office has been working to overhaul the way Government runs its procurement. At the time of the 2010 General Election there were extensive barriers facing small and medium-sized enterprises, and overall procurement was run in far too bureaucratic a way

We have worked to make the bidding process simpler and to increase the visibility of all contract opportunities on the Contracts Finder website. Complex forms, such as Pre-Qualification Questionnaires, are now abolished for low value contracts.These actions will make it easier for all suppliers, including ethnic minority businesses, to secure public procurement contracts.

Figures for central government's spend with SMEs can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-spends-114-billion-with-smes. We recently announced that overall spend in 2013/14 was an unprecedented £11.4 billion - 26.1% of direct and indirect spend - above the aspiration we set for this Parliament of 25%.

The Cabinet Office does not hold information centrally on the ethnic origins of business owners.