Speeches by McDougall.

“That is still shy of the 85% target, but, when you consider that we inherited 66% of those calls being answered, it does show progress.”

“No, it is not. I have been the small business person on the phone, and it is incredibly frustrating when you simply do not have enough time in the day to run your business at the best of times. The FSB reckons that small businesses spend about 44 hours and £4,500 a year on dealing with HMRC. What I would say is that, i…”

“I saw that story too. Sometimes when you see stories in the press, you can work out what their provenance was. On that one, I simply could not. There is a real determination in Government, evidenced by the fact that the Prime Minister was there for the launch and was so enthusiastic around the proposals that we have fo…”

“I will not abuse my position. What I would say in terms of the code is that we have replaced the prompt payment code with the fair payment code. That is more than just a name change. Under the new code, you have to get the gold standard, silver standard or bronze standard of payment practices. You have to give more evi…”

“No, they are not, which is why we are consulting on this at the moment. As the Chair said, the enormous cost to the economy of about £11 billion from late payments is only part of the story. 133 million hours of staff time are spent chasing late payments. I mentioned this job being cathartic at times. I go back to roug…”

“I would have to get back to you on that.”

“We are asking Government Departments to set their targets.”

“As I said, this is partly about publishing the targets and reporting on them every year, so there is an element of transparency here. Again, as with the defence example, it is being collaborative and working with them on this, and trying to change the understanding of procurement and what value for money looks like in …”

“No, I do not think so. This is work that is led by the MOD. There is a genuine desire to get better at this running all the way across Government. The other thing that I would say is that, if you read the national procurement policy statement, small business runs through that like writing in a stick of rock. It goes al…”

“I will take the example of colleagues in defence, which is a Department that historically was the largest buyer in Government but often had relationships with very large customers rather than small business. They are aware that there is a particular historic issue with that. We work with them on their small business pr…”

“We have the three-year target for spend by Departments and non-departmental public bodies. Alongside that, they have to set out SME action plans for how they are going to make it easier for them as well. As Small Business Minister, I view my job as to be a constant advocate for small business across Government. I will …”

“The Procurement Act seeks to deal with that historic failure to open up procurement to SMEs. It does many important things. It removes some of those particularly egregious barriers, such as having to have insurance before you bid, the pre-qualification questionnaire or the requirement for audited accounts. Those things…”

“Yes, those are the ones that I am most excited for and feel a sense of urgency around.”

“On procurement, we inherited a 33% target. As you say, that was not being met—it was down at 20%—and it was going backwards. We were spending less on SMEs than we were five years before. It is about trying to make a step change in the culture within Government and the ability of SMEs to take advantage of what for them …”

“We have started with the small business strategy and the implementation of that. We have just finished our consultation on late payments, which you raise, which is an extraordinary cost on business not just in terms of the money it takes out of businesses but in terms of the time it takes. We are working to make sure m…”

“I was saying that as an introduction. As a result of that, we have a stock of businesses that are extraordinarily resilient and adaptable because they have been through so much. We now have an opportunity to work through systematically all the barriers that they are facing.”

“Thank you for that introduction. For me, in many ways this is a dream job. I ran my own business for nearly a decade. There is an element of catharsis to working through so many of the challenges, including the ones that you have just expressed. In addition to all the challenges that you have just outlined, in the stoc…”

“First of all, on the 200-odd commitments within the small business strategy, we are continuing to work at pace to deliver those. We are looking at outcomes as well, in terms of the impact on small businesses around the country. For me, it is about confidence. Within small businesses that I speak to, there is often a se…”

“There is what I view personally as success and then there is what we are measuring as a Department.”

“The feedback so far has been extraordinarily positive. Again, I will turn to Ros on performance metrics.”