Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, 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 Ministry of Defence (MOD) publishes data on direct expenditure with Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), excluding its trading funds, on the Gov.UK website. The final figures for financial year 2012/13 and the provisional figures for financial year 2013/14 are available at the link: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/mod-contracting-with-smes-index

The MOD does not hold data on expenditure with SMEs through the supply chain (indirect expenditure). The Cabinet Office has recently published indicative indirect expenditure with SMEs, collated from spend figures reported by suppliers via the SID4GOV platform as part of the centrally coordinated quarterly supplier survey, in their publication 'Central Government direct and indirect expenditure with SMEs 2013 to 2014' available at the link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/central-government-spend-with-smes-2013-to-2014

Provisional figures released by the Cabinet Office in this publication indicate that MOD direct and indirect spend with SMEs is 19.4%.

For the period April 2014 to February 2015, the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory known direct expenditure with SMEs was 9.5%.

The UK Hydrographic Office (UKHO) does not currently record direct or indirect expenditure with SMEs.