SBS Diversity in Public Sector Procurement Survey

Within the sample of the three departments (DTI, OGC and HMT):Small businesses account for 71% of suppliers and 30% of spending. They facegreater obstacles in supplying government than medium and large companies, andhave fewer resources to be able to overcome these obstacles.Women-owned businesses account for 8% of suppliers and 5.6% of spending.Ethnic-minority owned businesses account for 3% of suppliers and 0.3% ofspending.Ethnicity and gender of ownership generally have little bearing on theobstacles faced by current suppliers to government. Discrimination on the basis ofrace and ethnicity was not mentioned once in the course of the study (it should beborne in mind that these are the opinions of existing suppliers who may not have felt itprudent to mention discrimination).[...]