SRM
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70 %
of Babcock’ s current contracts and working is within UK defence
Part of supply chain resilience and responsible procurement looks at the ways we sustain and develop smaller companies, but it’ s not just the charter. It’ s a commitment from us because we recognise through our procurement that what’ s important to a large company might be relevant to a small organisation. The public procurement process can be seen as lengthy, complex, expensive and at times, overly bureaucratic. Primes are able to operate in a Commercial manner, with agility and help SMEs overcome these barriers.
Q. HOW HAVE YOU FOUND THAT SMES PLAY A ROLE WITHIN THE UK DEFENCE INDUSTRY?
» Ultimately, they are the lifeblood of British industries and 99 % of UK employers, 60 % of employees work somewhere within an SME community.
They are absolutely vital to UK national security. If we think about technology, pace and innovation, there’ s a massive element that can be unlocked through the SME community that in defence, we should be unlocking and driving.
We support around 22,000 jobs across the UK supply chain and about a third of our spend is going to SMEs, so about 550 million per year into the small and medium enterprise organisations. But it’ s still really tough for them.
Only about 4 % of UK defence expenditure is with small and medium enterprises. The 2025 Strategic Defence Review and Defence Industrial Strategy highlights the critical importance of integrating SMEs more effectively into
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