Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support UK-headquartered AI companies and small and medium-sized enterprises in AI procurement strategy.

The Government is taking several steps to support UK-headquartered AI companies and SMEs in procurement:

• We are specifying social value criteria in procurement decisions that support selecting SMEs as implementation partners, and running targeted secondary procurements sized appropriately for smaller suppliers, informed by insights from SMEs and industry bodies including TechUK, AI UK, and Innovate UK.
• The AI Opportunity Scanning Team, now fully operational, provides cross-government technical horizon scanning and market intelligence to understand evolving AI capabilities and supplier landscapes.
• We are exploring innovative procurement approaches through the Commercial Innovation Hub and have launched the National AI Tender for a GOV.UK Agentic AI Companion following positive market engagement.
• The Open Source AI Fellowship programme, launched via the Alan Turing Institute, brings open-source AI specialists into government.
• The AI Knowledge Hub is being updated to include comprehensive technical guidance to support informed procurement decisions.