Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent discussions he has had with SMEs on barriers to defence procurement.

As part of our development of the Defence Industrial Strategy I have attended a series of Roundtable events with Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) across the United Kingdom. These events provide an opportunity to engage with SMEs across the defence supply chain, and to receive feedback on their experiences of doing business with defence, including the challenges which they encounter.

In addition to this, planning for a new SME Support Centre for SMEs has started. Officials have held multiple consultation events with SMEs and defence industry to ensure that the new service meets defence SMEs needs. We will be holding more consultation events in the coming weeks.