Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what his Department's definition is of a strategic supplier; and what criteria his Department uses to designate strategic suppliers.

A Ministry of Defence strategic supplier is a supplier whose goods or services are critical to the delivery of Defence objectives, and where a more structured and senior level of engagement is required to manage risk, performance and value for money.

Strategic suppliers are identified through a structured supplier segmentation process, aligned with cross‑Government Strategic Supplier Relationship Management (SSRM) best‑practice criteria. These criteria include considerations relating to risk, the scale and scope of engagement with the supplier, contract duration, the opportunity to deliver additional value, and strategic alignment. Spend is considered as one factor among several and is not, in itself, determinative.