Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 3
33rd Report - Supporting the UK’s priority industry sectors
Published 25 Jun 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Work of the Department for Business and Trade All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
The Department lacks a comprehensive understanding of its support for industry, including how much it spends per sector and the types of support it offers. The Department supports industry through a range of interventions, which vary in form and scale. Some interventions support individual sectors while others are designed to improve the general business environment. The Department currently tracks its programme spending, grant expenditure, and spending by its Business Group (the part of the Department leading on support for industry). In 2023–24, it spent £790.9 million on business support grants and £530.3 million on business support programmes. While the Department can provide information on its individual items of support and their desired policy outcomes, it does not have a comprehensive understanding of its support. The Department found it difficult to readily provide the National Audit Office (NAO) with a breakdown of its industry support; does not routinely categorise the composition of it (for example, by industry sector or type); and has a limited understanding of what can be provided to sectors by other government departments. Maintaining good oversight of spending enables good decision-making, prioritisation, and accountability, and reduces the risk of inefficiencies in how public funds are used to stimulate 4 economic growth. Without a good understanding of the profile of current spending, the Department cannot effectively adapt its approach to a new Industrial Strategy. recommendation The Department should consolidate its understanding of the support for industry it offers; take steps to improve its reporting, for example, by type, value and sector; and use this information to inform decision-making on future support.
From: Public Accounts Committee, 33rd Report - Supporting the UK’s priority industry sectors (HC 1070), 25 June 2025
Government response
Latest Treasury Minutes progress report to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Thirty-third Report of Session 2024-26
The government responded to the whole report on 4 June 2026 (deadline 25 August 2025).
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Thirty-third report from Session 2024-26
Published 18 September 2025.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government states that it "agrees with the Committee's recommendation" on each of the six recommendations, marking four as implemented and two with target implementation dates in 2026.
- On engagement with industry, it says a cross-government Account Management initiative has appointed dedicated account managers, and that it "will explore establishing dedicated Sector Offices" where there is appetite from industry.
- On cross-government working, it says it has developed a new digital system, the Strategic Company Insight Tool, and is "expanding usage" among departments.
- On understanding of its support for industry, the department says it "will collaborate across government and public bodies to enhance tracking and reporting" of support to the Industrial Strategy sectors.
- On internal structures, it states that its restructuring is "already in progress and will be mostly completed by Spring 2026". The response on balancing objectives has a target implementation date of Summer 2026.