Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to page 134 of the Industrial Strategy, what plans he has to improve procurement tools to make public sector contracts more accessible for SMEs.

We are continuing to improve the performance and functionality of the Contracts Finder web site, which allows users to view and search opportunities that are currently open to tender, pipelines of potential procurement activity and awarded contracts.

Contracts Finder has recently been enhanced to deliver improved search for suppliers, a better experience for buyers and accessibility improvements for all users. New supply chain functionality and registration processes have been added to improve visibility of opportunities available to SMEs in the supply chain. In addition, organisation identifiers for suppliers and buyers have been added to improve our Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) implementation. Further enhancements will be developed and deployed by March.

In addition, the Crown Commercial Service will improve its digital procurement platforms to make it easier for suppliers to do business with the government, for example through implementation of the Crown Marketplace purchasing platform.