Babcock launches SME Engagement Charter

Image courtesy Babcock

The Babcock SME Engagement Charter builds on insights from the recent Next Line of Defence report, published by Babcock and the University of Exeter, which identified barriers to SMEs accelerating innovation and bolstering the UK’s long term defence resilience. 

SMEs currently represent only around 4% of UK defence expenditure, limiting wider economic impact, access to world-leading technologies and sovereign capability. The Charter seeks to address these barriers by setting out practical, transparent and measurable commitments championed by Babcock, which encourage a more accessible, fair and collaborative defence ecosystem. 

Launched on the same day as a UK Government led round table discussion on industry engagement with SMEs in London, Babcock’s 10-point commitment to SMEs outlines clear actions across six themes:

• Discover & Engage – Simpler engagement for SMEs to find opportunities and compete on their strengths.
• Contract – Proportionate contracts and prompt payment to give SMEs confidence and protect their IP.
• Validate & Pull Through – Aiming to provide accessible, secure testbeds to allow SMEs to trial innovations.
• Build & Scale – Mentoring and embedding expertise to help SMEs meet standards and grow sustainably.
• Industry Ecosystem – Continuing to champion defence as a modern, inclusive career path.
• Govern & Improve – Publicly tracked reporting.

Donna Sinnick, Chief Delivery Officer at Babcock, said: “SMEs are vital to the defence industry, bringing agility, specialist expertise and rapid innovation capabilities that complement those of the larger defence primes. The Babcock SME Engagement Charter is a framework for change, which will provide significant opportunities for us to enhance SMEs experience working within the sector. 

“Injecting niche capabilities, creativity and pace, SMEs provide some of the key ingredients for maintaining a modern, sovereign and technologically superior defence capability. By operating across regional clusters, they also stimulate local economies and help attract the next generation of skilled employees into the defence ecosystem.”

The Charter provides a vital bridge between policy ambition and practical delivery across the defence enterprise driving national capability and local growth. 

Launched with the support of the industry trade body ADS, its CEO Kevin Craven, said: “We welcome the SME Engagement Charter from Babcock. SMEs play a central role in driving innovation, agility, and specialist capability across the UK’s defence industrial base. Initiatives that seek to simplify engagement, improve commercial pathways and reduce barriers to entry are critical in helping SMEs maximise their contribution to national security and economic resilience.

“Continued collaboration of this kind will be essential in ensuring the UK maintains a modern, competitive and resilient defence ecosystem.”

By improving accessibility, speeding up routes to market, and creating proportionate commercial structures, the Charter aims to widen SME participation, enhance sovereign capability and stimulate regional economic growth, supporting the UK’s ambition to be a leading technology enabled defence power by 2035.