To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that digital procurement opportunities are available to businesses of all sizes.

The Government has committed to a challenging target to ensure 33% of its total procurement spend is with small businesses by 2020.

We are continuing to take action to cut out unnecessary bureaucracy in government procurement, simplify documentation and open up more public contracts to small businesses.

In terms of the procurement of digital services, the Crown Commercial Service’s Digital Outcomes and Specialists framework provides access to over 2,000 suppliers, of which 89% are small businesses. Of the £103 million spent to date, 53% is with small businesses.

The fourth iteration of the Digital Outcomes and Specialist framework, has 2,018 suppliers, of which 89% are SMEs.