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The UK government has launched a new team to help small businesses win more defense contracts and make defense an “engine of growth”.
Luke PollardThe Secretary of State for Defense Preparedness and Industry described small businesses as “the backbone of UK defence” when announcing the establishment of the Defense Office for Small Business Growth (OfSBG).
The OfSBG team will be made up of policy and business experts who will support UK SMEs to bid for and win more defense contracts.
I hope OfSBG can turn around the situation Department of Defense (MOD) Spending Small and medium enterprises Help deliver on the UK Government’s commitment to increase SME defense spending by 50% by 2028.
Mr Pollard said: “We are establishing the Defense Office for Small Business Growth as part of our mission to increase the amount of Department of Defense spending on small businesses across the country.
“We currently spend around £5 billion a year and we want to increase that by 50% to £7.5 billion by 2028, which is a huge increase that will create lots of jobs, lots of growth and make Britain stronger.
“But to do that, we want to make it easier for small businesses to interact with the Department of Defense so that we can procure faster and faster and they can get products to market faster.
“So this is the start of a process to make defense more friendly to small business, create good jobs and growth, and ensure defense is the engine of growth in every region of our country.”
The team will help streamline and speed up processes, provide advice to SMEs and encourage private sector investment.
Mr Pollard said the establishment of the OfSBG was important in the current security environment.
He said: “We know we are living in a new era of threats, the dangers of which we see on our television screens every day, so it is important to build the resilience of our industrial supply chains.
“An army, an army, is only as strong as the industry behind it and as a government we want to spend more of our defense budget on British Companies large and small, and to that end, we want to make it easier for small businesses to sell their goods and services to Defense so we can support our country’s growth and make our supply chains more resilient. “
Ahead of Tuesday’s announcement, Mr Pollard visited Scotland’s National Manufacturing Institute in Renfrewshire on Monday, which supports the manufacturing of innovative technologies, and Viper::Blast in Aberdour, Fife, which specializes in fast, high-fidelity simulations of air blasts, blast blasts and structural loads.
OfSBG will act as a central hub for advice and support working with defence, ensuring procurement processes are faster, simpler and more effective.
scottish secretary Douglas Alexander Said: “The creation of the Defense Office for Small Business Growth is great news for Scottish businesses, workers and the economy as it will help increase opportunities and investment opportunities, and we have committed to increasing spending on SMEs by £2.5 billion by May 2028.
“Defence has become a key driver of Scotland’s revitalization, with the MoD spending more than £2 billion a year on Scotland’s defense sector, supporting nearly 12,000 industrial jobs.
“Now, with historic increases in our spending to protect ourselves and Europe’s security, and new support for SMEs, we will further transform the sector.
“As we strengthen our defence, Scotland’s world-class industry and supply chains and global demand for Scottish expertise will play an important role in keeping the UK safe, deterring our adversaries and driving economic growth in the coming years.”
The public-facing portal and contact center will initially support 30 SMEs in carefully selected industries, from aerospace engineering to cyber, covering the entire UK, from the south of England to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.