Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that they meet their target of awarding small and medium-sized enterprises 33 per cent of public works contracts by 2022.

This Government is committed to supporting small businesses and we continue to aspire to 33% of Government procurement spend on goods, services and works goes to SMEs by 2022.

In April the government announced a number of measures to help achieve this, including:

· Requiring greater transparency by prime contractors to increase SMEs visibility in the supply chain;

· Improving the visibility of supply chain opportunities to SMEs; and

· Consulting on how to improve prompt payment to SMEs in the supply chain.

We have already streamlined our procurement processes to assist small businesses, and we continue to focus on breaking down the barriers that might deter SMEs from bidding for Government contracts.