Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Philip Dunne and Chris Heaton-Harris

Monday 27th June 2016 Commons Chamber

[Chris Heaton-Harris (Daventry) (Con)]

13. What steps he is taking to increase the proportion of defence spending that goes to small firms.

[The Minister for Defence Procurement (Mr Philip Dunne)]

Small businesses are a crucial engine for growth and innovation in this country, and we are determined that they should play an increasing part in supplying defence. We are committed to achieving 25% of our procurement spend with small and medium-sized enterprises by 2020, and that target is 10% higher than the one set during the last Parliament. We recently refreshed our SME policy to show how we will work to achieve that.

[Chris Heaton-Harris]

What steps is my hon. Friend taking to make it as simple as possible for small firms to benefit from this increased spend?

[Mr Dunne]

We have already appointed a new network of supply chain advocates to provide a named point of contact for potential suppliers. We are providing a new online tool for suppliers to highlight opportunities, and we are simplifying our standard terms and conditions.

Defence

Debate between Philip Dunne and Chris Heaton-Harris

Wednesday 2nd March 2016 Ministerial Corrections

[Mr Dunne]

As my hon. Friend knows, the UK defence and security industry is the largest in Europe. As the default position, we continue to place contracts on the basis of open competition. EU procurement directives apply to our procurement, which means that EU contractors are eligible to compete for our contracts in the same way as UK and other international companies, other than when we declare an article 346 exemption for warlike stores.



Mesothelioma

The following is an extract from Questions to the Secretary of State for Defence on 29 February 2016.

[Chris Heaton-Harris (Daventry) (Con)]

5. What plans he has to reform compensation for armed forces veterans affected by mesothelioma.