Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent estimate his Department has made of the proportion of central government procurement that is spent with SMEs led by minority ethnic groups.

This information is not held centrally.

The government is committed to supporting start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), directly or via the supply chain, through government procurement, including those led by women and minority ethnic groups. Government spending with SMEs is also continuing to rise, with 26.7% of the £58bn spent by the government in 2019/20 going to SMEs.