§ Mr. David ShawTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the achievements of(a) his policies and (b) his Department in helping 450W small businesses over the last 12 months as against the previous 12 months; and if he will publish the performance indicators by which his Department monitors those achievements and the statistical results of such monitoring.
§ Mr. Alan ClarkFurther to the reply I gave to the hon. Member on 24 July last year, Vol. 177, column 121, I can inform him of the following: our new suppliers service has given marketing advice to about 2,400 companies over the last 12 months; our fortnightlyContracts Bulletin now includes details of sub-contract opportunities and allows sub-contractors to purchase advertising space; and during 1990–91, 38 defence research contracts, with a total value of £1.18 million were placed under our small firms research initiative.
Details of payments to small firms during 1990–91 are not yet available, but during 1989–90, about 6,200 small companies secured headquarters contracts, with a total value of approximately £1 billion. Just over half this went to businesses with fewer than 50 employees. Over the same period, MOD establishments awarded over 200,000 local purchase orders to small firms, at a total value of £100 million.