Information on how the Ministry of Defence works with the Defence
sector to achieve our goals.
From:
Ministry of Defence
Published
29 October 2020
Last updated
13 February 2023 — See all updates
Contents
-
Spending more with
SMEs
-
Related information
The Strategic Defence and
Security Review (SDSR) 2015 committed the UK to spending
a minimum 2% of GDP on defence over the next decade. This
commitment represents spending some £178-billion on Defence
Equipment and Support over that period.
In 2019/20 MOD spent nearly £21-billion
with industry, accounting for almost 40% of all UK government
procurement spend and representing the fifth biggest defence
budget in the world.
The size and complexity of many of our projects means that we
need to work closely with our suppliers to ensure delivery of the
Defence programme. Below are 19 of our largest suppliers:
- Airbus
- Babcock
- BAE Systems
- Boeing
- Capita
- COBHAM
- DXC
- General Dynamics
- KBR
- Leidos
- Leonardo
- Lockheed Martin
- MBDA
- QinetiQ
- Raytheon
- Rolls-Royce
- Serco
- Thales
- Ultra Electronics.
The majority of procurement opportunities in Defence exist within
the MOD supply
chain (around 75%). To access as many opportunities as possible
we encourage you to look at Defence supplier’s websites.
We advocate the use of competition wherever appropriate both in
our direct contract opportunities and throughout the supply
chain.
Opportunities therefore exist for suppliers of all sizes, from
large established defence contractors through to innovative
smaller businesses, to get involved in our procurement activity
both as a prime supplier and as a sub-contractor.
The programmes we support are detailed in the Defence Equipment Plan
2020.
Spending more with SMEs
We recognise SMEs have a great deal to offer in promoting
economic growth. We are working to help SMEs gain a greater share
of defence related business.
We are improving access to our market for new, innovative
suppliers and particularly smaller businesses. We want at least
25% of our procurement spend to go to SMEs both directly and
indirectly by 2022.
To help achieve this goal we have developed a
dedicated SME Action Plan, which
reinforces our commitment to the SME Agenda, aiming to
increase our overall spend with SMEs.
Our SME spend has increased
steadily over the last four years, from 13.1% in Financial Year
2016/17 to 21.3% in Financial Year 2019/20. Data on central
government SME spend is
published on GOV.UK on an annual basis.
The Defence Science and
Technology Laboratory is committed to working with a
wider range of innovative SMEs. This is underpinned by
the SME Searchlight
project, set up to attract SMEs and non-traditional defence
suppliers.
Additionally, the Defence and Security
Accelerator (DASA) finds and funds exploitable
innovation to support UK defence and security quickly and
effectively, and support UK prosperity. They achieve this by
welcoming ideas from innovators’ SMEs through their innovation
competitions and providing support to those who have not
previously worked with Government.
Government has a commitment to obtain value for money and support
small businesses and start-ups through procurement. We understand
the challenges and barriers, especially for smaller firms, and
are committed to tackling them. Centralised guidance for SMEs is
available on the Small and Medium Business
Hub.
Related information
Procurement
at MOD
