Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that UK-based firms are able to participate in competitive procurement processes for NHS contracts.

The Government is committed to ensuring that public procurement delivers economic growth, supports small businesses, champions innovation and creates high quality jobs across the United Kingdom.

In February 2025, the Government published the National Procurement Policy Statement, which is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-procurement-policy-statement

The statement sets out clear priorities to maximise the impact of public spending. This came into effect alongside the commencement of the Procurement Act 2023, which modernises the procurement regime to make it simpler, more transparent, and more supportive of UK-based suppliers. The Government has also consulted on further reforms to improve domestic competitiveness and support British business. More information about the consultation is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/public-procurement-growing-british-industry-jobs-and-skills-consultation-on-further-reforms-to-public-procurement

The Social Value Model is a legal requirement on public bodies to consider broader economic, social, and environmental benefits, not just cost, in procurement exercises. All procurements exercises are required to apply a minimum of 10% weighting in the bid evaluation, including those in the National Health Service. This approach aligns with Government policy to support UK growth, jobs, skills pathways, and workforce wellbeing.

NHS England is also committed to improving engagement with small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and helping to make it easier for them to do business with the NHS. To help ensure SMEs have a voice within the NHS, NHS England have established an SME Advisory Group, which has worked with NHS England to improve the opportunities for SMEs to engage with and compete for NHS business. In February 2024, NHS England published an SME Action Plan that outlines how the NHS will better engage, communicate with and learn from the SME community, improve visibility of NHS opportunities and encourage SME participation in commercial activity. The action plan is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/small-and-medium-enterprises-action-plan/