Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what proportion of the amount (a) his Department and (b) its agencies and non-departmental public bodies spent on procurement was paid to small and medium-sized enterprises (i) directly and (ii) through the supply chain in the last year for which figures are available.

The Government has overhauled public procurement to open it up to businesses of all sizes.

On 25 February 2015, we announced that central government spent an unprecedented £11.4 billion with small and medium sized enterprises in 2013-14, a record 26.1% of direct and indirect spend. This meets our aspiration, set in 2010, of 25% of government procurement spend by the end of this Parliament.

My Department's figure is 29.5% - above the Government's goal.

The data on central government spend in 2013-14 is available on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/central-government-spend-with-smes-2013-to-2014