Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to p.53 of the document entitled Backing your business, published on 31 July 2025, what steps his Department is taking to monitor the level of SME participation in public procurement.

The Department for Business and Trade monitors the level of SME participation in our procurement through contract award data via a live commercial dashboard which captures supplier type and specifically whether a supplier qualifies as an SME. DBT will publish SME spend data annually (in line with Procurement Policy Note 001). Strategies for high value spend are scrutinised by the department's Commercial Approvals and Assurance Group which challenges teams on whether proposed contracts are sufficiently accessible for SMEs.

The commercial team will present bi-annual progress updates against the department's SME spend target to the Minister for Small Businesses.