§ 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 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. AitkenFurther to the reply given to my hon. Friend on 15 July 1992,Official Report, column 817, I can inform him that our new suppliers service has given marketing advice to about 2,000 companies over the past 12 months. Also, in November 1992 the MOD reissued its advisory booklet on selling to the MOD. The publication is intended to be of particular value to small companies.
Details of payments made to small firms during 1992–93 are not yet available, but during 1991–92, some 6,300 small companies secured contracts valued at approximately £1.16 billion. A significant number of these orders went to companies with less than 50 employees. In the same period Ministry of Defence establishments awarded 276,000 local purchase orders valued at about £222 million, a large number of which went to small firms.