Oral Answers to Questions

Stephen Metcalfe Excerpts

Wednesday 28th March 2018 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Maclean (Redditch) (Con)]

6. What steps his Department is taking to support the use of small businesses in Government procurement.

[Stephen Metcalfe (South Basildon and East Thurrock) (Con)]

9. What steps his Department is taking to support the use of small businesses in Government procurement.

[Mike Wood (Dudley South) (Con)]

11. What steps his Department is taking to support the use of small businesses in Government procurement.

--- Later in debate ---

[Oliver Dowden]

My hon. Friend raises an important point. Small businesses throughout the country create millions of jobs and it is important that they are able to access large contracts such as HS2. Public sector contracts are advertised on the Contracts Finder website, which is free and easy to use, and bidders can request information as they need it. I encourage businesses in my hon. Friend’s constituency and elsewhere to take advantage.

[Stephen Metcalfe]

As my hon. Friend will know, small businesses are the backbone of the UK economy. It is the Government’s responsibility to make sure that they can compete equally for public sector contracts. Will my hon. Friend tell the House what he is doing to level the playing field?

[Oliver Dowden]

We are constantly looking into new ways to reduce the barriers to small businesses working with the public sector, which is why we have already scrapped complex pre-qualification questionnaires for low-value contracts. We require public sector buyers to split contracts into accessible chunks for small businesses, and I am pleased to confirm that we will reopen the G-Cloud to new suppliers, which will further help small businesses.