Written question asked by Michael Dugher (Labour) on Tuesday, 24 April 2012, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 26 April 2012. It was answered by Peter Luff (Conservative) on Monday, 30 April 2012 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Procurement

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what percentage of departmental procurement spend went to small and medium-sized enterprises in (a) 2009-10, (b) 2010-11 and (c) 2011-12.

Answer: The figure for the percentage of departmental procurement spend going directly to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in 2011-12 is not yet available.The percentage of overall departmental procurement spend going directly to SMEs in 2010-11 was 3.8%. This figure reflects spending on a number of large long-term contracts, to which the Department has been committed for some time. The percentage of new contracts awarded to SMEs during 2010-11 was 13% by value and 42% by volume.The Department did not calculate a robust figure for financial year 2009-10. However, in practice, a much larger proportion of the Department's procurement spending benefits SMEs. This is because, for many of its larger procurement projects, the MOD works through a primary contractor. This contractor then lets a number of further contracts to SMEs. As a result, the figures above considerably underestimate the true impact of Defence procurement spending on SMEs.

Secondary information