Oral Answers to Questions

Andrew Turner Excerpts

Wednesday 11th February 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Maude]

The hon. Lady is completely right to flag up the huge scope for improvement in online services in local government. GDS’s focus has had to be on central Government, but in the document on efficiency and reform that we published at the time of the autumn statement, we flagged up that we expect this to be available across the wider public sector. The focus for the time being has to be on finishing the job in central Government, but helping to build an equivalent to support local government is a very high priority for us.

[Mr Andrew Turner (Isle of Wight) (Con)]

5. What change there has been in the proportion of Government procurement made through small businesses and the voluntary sector since May 2010.

[The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General (Mr Francis Maude)]

The central Government’s direct spend with small businesses increased from 6.5% in 2009-10 to 10.5% in 2012-13, and small and medium-sized enterprises have benefited from a further 9.4% of indirect spend through the supply chain in that same year. I shall be publishing figures for 2013-14 shortly. We have moved a long way towards our ambition and aspiration that a quarter of Government procurement should be with SMEs.

[Mr Turner]

What steps have the Government taken to make public procurement simpler, especially for small and micro-businesses on the Isle of Wight?

[Mr Maude]

I am delighted that my hon. Friend has raised this point about supporting businesses in the Isle of Wight; he has been a huge and doughty champion of businesses in his constituency. We have made public procurement more transparent and accessible. We have published tenders and contracts through the contracts finder website—and we shall be launching a much-improved version of that very soon. We have simplified how procurement takes place to take away some of the bureaucracy that looked like it was designed to stop small businesses competing for, and winning, business. There is much more we can and will do.