Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of adjusting the cycle of procurement for SMEs so that Government contracts are issued throughout the year.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) contracts are issued throughout the year and not just at a specific time of the year. The Acquisition pipeline for the MOD was being published twice per year and indicated the anticipated date for publication of the tenders across the next 18+ months.

The Department currently publishes an 18 month forward look of our procurement pipeline but will move to continuous updates for the benefit of suppliers (including SMEs) registered on the Central Digital Platform.

Consideration of SMEs is a key element in the UK's Modern Industrial Strategy and, as part of the Defence Industrial Strategy, we will reform the MOD procurement and acquisition processes to ensure we deliver the capabilities defence requires now and in the future.