Oral Answers to Questions

Julie Marson Excerpts

Thursday 25th March 2021 Commons Chamber

[Robbie Moore (Keighley) (Con)]

What steps the Government are taking to increase the opportunities for small businesses to bid for Government contracts.

[Julie Marson (Hertford and Stortford) (Con)]

What steps the Government are taking to increase the opportunities for small businesses to bid for Government contracts.

[Elliot Colburn (Carshalton and Wallington) (Con)]

What steps the Government are taking to increase the opportunities for small businesses to bid for Government contracts.

--- Later in debate ---

[Julia Lopez]

I thank my hon. Friend for his question, and I know that businesses in Keighley will really appreciate what a great champion he is for their interests. We are doing a range of things within our new measures. We want to slash 350-plus regulations and put this into a single uniform framework. We want to do things such as reserve contracts below a certain threshold for SMEs, be able to discriminate by virtue of geography and divide contracts up into smaller lots. There is much more that I can talk to him about if he is interested in this subject.

[Julie Marson [V]]

I thank my hon. Friend for her response. Alongside wonderful small businesses, does the Cabinet Office also look at venture capital companies to enable Government Departments to have the opportunity to support and benefit from our brilliant, innovative venture businesses?

[Julia Lopez]

We are looking all the time at how we innovate in public procurement. Some of my hon. Friend’s query might be better addressed by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy or Her Majesty’s Treasury, but we hope that the improvements that we are proposing will open up many more opportunities to SMEs. She might also be interested in existing programmes such as the small business research initiative, which funds organisations to conduct challenge-based R&D to develop products or services that address a specific unmet public sector need.