Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate he has made of the share of Government contracts that are won by SMEs.

The government wants SMEs to benefit from central government procurement spend, either directly or indirectly via the supply chain.

Reports on central government spend with SMEs are published on GOV.UK on an annual basis by the Cabinet Office. The latest procurement figures for 2019/20, published on the 7th of May 2021 show that across central government, £15.5bn was paid to SMEs to help deliver vital public services. The figure is an increase of £1.3bn on the previous year and the highest since records began in 2013. Overall, spending with SMEs represented 26.7 per cent of the £58bn spent by the government in 2019/20 – an increase of 1.1 per cent on the previous year.