7. What steps he is taking to help support small and medium-sized businesses through reforms to public procurement.

14. What steps he is taking to help support small and medium-sized businesses through reforms to public procurement.

This Government are determined to ensure that public procurement backs small and medium-sized businesses. That is why we have strengthened late payment rules, have set ambitious targets for all Departments to spend more with small and medium-sized enterprises—totalling £7 billion by 2028—and are simplifying the entire system to ensure that SMEs get a fairer crack. We are working with the Federation of Small Businesses on this, and there is much more to come.

This week I welcomed Antich & Sons to Parliament. It is a family-owned textiles company that, for the past decade, has been innovating by using traditional local skills and methods to develop 3D weaving techniques and provide cutting-edge advanced material solutions. Given how that aligns with the industrial strategy and the northern growth strategy, what are this Government doing to help companies like Antich & Sons access procurement processes?

My hon. Friend is absolutely right to highlight small businesses like the one in her constituency. As I announced in March, small businesses will now receive just over £7 billion a year from government procurement, as a result of reforms that we have put in place. That will support the industrial strategy that she mentioned. It will mean more money, jobs and opportunities in local communities—a lot done, and a lot more to do in this space.

Dellner Glass Solutions, one of the SMEs in my constituency of Blaydon and Consett, has been manufacturing aluminium and glass fabrications for over 50 years. It supplies window and door systems to the UK’s world-leading bus manufacturing market. What steps is the Minister taking to ensure that reforms to public procurement support the growth of companies like Dellner Glass Solutions across the UK bus manufacturing supply chain?

A number of colleagues, including my hon. Friend the Member for Falkirk (Euan Stainbank), have raised this subject several times with me, and I am working with Department for Transport colleagues to see what more we can do to support British manufacturers, but we are already acting. We have announced a 10-year pipeline with over £70 million of funding for zero emission buses. We are also working on redefining social value to ensure that it does more to support local communities and local jobs. That should help companies like Dellner Glass Solutions stand out when it comes to public procurement.

Will the Minister confirm whether these reforms will apply to the provision of services to prisons? This year, the Ministry of Justice will commission 25% fewer hours of education and training in our prisons, not because of a cut in the budget, but because of an increase in the unit price. The Ministry of Justice requires providers to offer a very large minimum number of hours in order to bid for contracts. If he allowed small businesses to bid to provide education and training in just one prison, the Ministry would get a lot more value for money.

I thank the hon. Member for that; it is a really good question. The reforms that we have introduced apply to all Departments, and the MOJ is obviously signed up to them. I have discussed this with the POA and a couple of other related organisations. If it is okay with him, I will ask colleagues in the Ministry of Justice about this and get back to him on the specifics.

Public procurement must do more to support SMEs in Wokingham and across the UK who are doing their best to grow, despite what many see as a lack of help from the Government. In defence, only 5% of the procurement budget is allocated to SMEs. How will the Government change public procurement to benefit SMEs and the economy?

The hon. Member is absolutely right that we need to do more to support SMEs, and that we need to use our procurement budget to do that. I have announced some of the steps that we have already taken. In fact, just last week, we announced new guidance, both to ensure that, in sectors such as steel and shipping, more contracts go to British companies, and to help small and medium-sized businesses. That is just the start. We need to go much further—I am not challenging that at all—but we are taking big steps. In the last few years, we have come a long way, but hopefully we can go further.