Work and Pensions written question – answered at on 2 November 2009.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what percentage of procurement contracts (a) her Department and (b) its agencies awarded to small businesses in (i) 2006-07, (ii) 2007-08, (iii) 2008-09 and (iv) 2009-10; and if she will make a statement.
Information on the number and percentage of contracts awarded to small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) in a year is not maintained by the Department for Work and Pensions and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. As part of the DWP Commercial Strategy, the Department tracks centrally the number of SMEs the Department, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies does business with in each financial year and the amount it spends with each supplier. This process does not break these figures down into individual agency or NDPB. In 2008-09 the number of SMEs that had contracts with the Department was 9,212 and the total expenditure with them was £429.7 million or 11.2 per cent. of total DWP procurement expenditure in the year. The latest available figures for 2009-10 are £239.3 million or 11.4 per cent. of total procurement expenditure in the period April to end September 2009.
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