§ Mrs. RocheTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what proportion of his Department's budget was spent on procurement from small and medium enterprises in 1995–96. [27523]
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonI refer the hon. Member to my answer of 28 November 1995 at column589 to her similar question relating to 1994–95. Our financial and procurement systems in use in 1995–96 had no facility for categorising suppliers according to the size of their business. We are currently implementing a new system which we intend to use to help us to provide the information requested in future years.