Press.

Main findings

As published on 3 November 2026. Our pages update as new data arrives, so check the page for the latest figure before you publish.

• Ministers met big corporates about eight times as often as start-ups. From January 2021 to July 2026, 17% of the organisations in ministers’ meetings were big corporates. Just 2.1%, about 1 in 48, were start-ups or scale-ups. Who gets in the room
• Government answers a quarter of its consultations on time. Of consultations closed since October 2021, 24% had a response within the 12 weeks government aims for. The typical wait is 175 days, and about a quarter have no published response at all. Did they listen?
• Defence is not yet opening its door wider. Start-ups won 5.6% of Ministry of Defence contract awards in 2025–26, against 6.9% across the rest of government. Defence procurement
• Start-ups get less of government’s attention than usual. The Seam Start-up Access Index stood at 74 for April to June 2026, against a five-year average of 100. The Start-up Access Index

Every piece is built from public records: ministers’ and officials’ transparency returns, Find a Tender, GOV.UK and Parliament. Each page says how we did it. All our analysis

How to cite us

Name Seam and link to the page you used. For example:

Seam analysis by Matt Bevington, “Who gets in the room”, seamgov.com/analysis-meetings-2026, accessed 27 October 2026.

If you want to use one of our charts, or need the figures behind it, email us.

Contact

For press enquiries and comment, email [email protected]. Matt Bevington, Seam’s founder, can talk about start-ups and government, public procurement, ministers’ meetings and consultations.