Oral Question·Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
“If she will make a statement on her departmental responsibilities.”
Tabled: 9 November 2023Answered: 15 November 2023
Asked by
Matt Vickers
Conservative — Stockton West
Answering Minister
the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
Answer from Hansard
The Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry (Luke Pollard)
We inherited a broken procurement system of red tape, delays and high costs. Some 47 of 49 major defence programmes were delayed or not on budget when we came to office. We are speeding up procurement, buying British and aiming to increase direct SME spend by 50%, which represents an extra £2.5 billion that we will spend with UK SMEs.