Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to encourage micro-enterprise companies with 10 or fewer employees or turnovers of less than two million euros to bid within its procurement system for consultancy contracts.

DFID does not classify suppliers at the micro-enterprise level. These companies are included within the SME (small and medium-sized enterprise ) category as defined by the European Commission. In 2015/16 direct spend with SME’s was 32%, and DFID is on track to achieve the Cabinet Office target of 33% SME spend by 2020.