§ Mrs. RocheTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what was the outcome of his Department's review of how to facilitate small firms' access to appropriate areas to Government procurement in the light of good practice. [27512]
§ Mr. Jonathan EvansAction has been taken in a number of areas to facilitate small firms' access to the Department's procurement procedures. Our contribution to the DTI's booklet "Tendering for Government Contracts", which provides small firms with contact points has resulted in an increase in the number of enquiries. Information provided by suppliers has been distributed to purchasing staff around the Department. It is also practice for all tenders to contain a contact point for dealing with inquiries relating to the contract. An exercise to identify which of the Department's suppliers are small or medium enterprises will be completed shortly as part of the development of a national purchasing system. This will allow trends in the use of small firms to be measured in the future. I have asked my officials to keep the question of access for small firms under review and to introduce further measures where the scope for improvements can be identified.