§ Mr. David Shawasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the achievements of his Department in helping small businesses over the last three years; and if he will publish the performance indicators by which his Department monitors those achievements and the statistical results of such monitoring.
§ Mr. EggarOrders are placed with small businesses which are able to satisfy the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's value-for-money requirements. The value of such procurement since 1984 was:
£million 1984–85 1.766 1985–86 4.180 1986–87 6.695 One third of Foreign and Commonwealth Office procurement is from the central agencies. No data are available on how much of this business is with small firms.
Commercial departments of Diplomatic Service posts give a wide range of help to British exporters, including small firms.
For example, in 1984, 1985 an 1986 they assisted 74,598, 77,325 and 76,942 British business visitors and handled 58,491, 60,485 and 65,473 market information inquiries, respectively. Posts do not keep separate statistics showing the help given to small firms but these represent a significant proportion of the overall work load.