Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

SMEs: Public Contracts

Thursday 16 July 2020 · 2 questions

Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.

At a glance

Answered 2 Partly answered 0 Not answered 0

Key points

  • Ministerial Questions took place on 2020-07-16 regarding SMEs and public contracts.
  • The government spent 14.2 billion with SMEs last year, an increase of nearly 2 billion from the previous year.
  • Over 3 billion items of PPE have been contracted through UK-based manufacturers alone.

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Questions & Answers

Q1 Henry Smith Con Crawley
Context

Last year, £14.2 billion was spent with SMEs, nearly £2 billion more than the previous year.

Question

The measures taken to ensure SMEs are awarded public procurement contracts and ease the procurement process by simplifying pre-qualification questionnaires.

Answer from Amanda Milling

We have spent £14.2 billion with SMEs last year, nearly £2 billion more than the previous year. We introduced measures to ease procurement and simplify pre-qualification questionnaires for SMEs.

Answered
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Q2 Henry Smith Con Crawley
Context

An SME in Henry Smith's constituency has redeployed to manufacture PPE but faces challenges securing public contracts.

Question

Support for SMEs who have redeployed to meet national effort during coronavirus, especially when competing with more expensive international suppliers.

Answer from Amanda Milling

We received an extraordinary response from people offering PPE and UK manufacturers wanting to make equipment from scratch. We have contracted over 3 billion items of PPE through UK-based manufacturers alone, although further offers are not needed at the moment.

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