Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to help small businesses benefit from cloud computing technology.

The Government supports many initiatives that promote small business adoption and use of ICT, including cloud computing.

For example, we are providing £12 million over the current spending period to Tech City UK, Tech North and other clusters where small tech businesses benefit from a number of initiatives including the Future Fifty programme offering targeted support to start-up companies. Business can also access support to do more online through Local Enterprise Partnerships and growth hubs. These services work in tandem with an extensive range of private sector-led initiatives to help small businesses improve their digital capability.

In addition, the Government’s Digital Marketplace has made it easier for SMEs to offer cloud products and services to the public sector by simplifying and speeding up the application process.