Oral Answers to Questions

Victoria Prentis Excerpts

Monday 12th September 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mark Lancaster]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for the support that he offers. I can only repeat that we are keen to get applications expedited as quickly as possible. Although all of the cohort are of a certain age, if any hon. Member has a constituent about whom they are particularly concerned, I ask them to contact us and we will endeavour to get the Légion d’Honneur to them as quickly as possible.

[Victoria Prentis (Banbury) (Con)]

4. What steps he is taking to increase the level of defence spending with small firms.

[Alberto Costa (South Leicestershire) (Con)]

10. What steps he is taking to increase the level of defence spending with small firms.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Harriett Baldwin)]

Small businesses are crucial for growth and innovation in this country, and we want them to take an increasing share of our growing defence budget. We are committed to achieving 25% of our procurement spend being with small and medium-sized enterprises by 2020. That target is 10% higher than the one set during the last Parliament.

[Victoria Prentis]

May I say how nice it is to see my hon. Friend in her place? May I drill down a little and ask her what steps she can take to ensure that the Ministry of Defence’s largest customers use small firms to deliver their contracts?

[Harriett Baldwin]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right that it is essential that we work on that not only in our direct defence procurement process but with our supply chains. I am delighted to be able to let the House know that the supply chain advocate network and the supply chain champions, which my predecessor announced, are well under way, and that last year the Ministry of Defence was able to have direct spend with almost 5,000 different companies.