Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 6
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)
It is essential that the government’s forthcoming Industrial Strategy has clear measures of success and effective processes for monitoring and evaluation. The government’s forthcoming Industrial Strategy is central to its economic growth mission. The Department is placing great emphasis on the Strategy and sees it as an opportunity to set a clear strategic direction for the UK economy over the next decade. The Department is less clear however on the practical implications of the Strategy and how it will change the nature of its support for industry, noting at the time we took evidence that it was in the middle of a spending review process. The Department acknowledges that its monitoring and evaluation has been inconsistent and, moving forward, wishes to embed evaluation from the start of its interventions. The Strategy provides the Department, HM Treasury and wider government an opportunity to address these shortcomings and set clear measures of success. While the government has yet to specify objectives for its Industrial Strategy, the Department’s Permanent Secretary is clear that it would be a failure if, in two to three years, the UK’s growth rate had not improved to at least the G7 average from 1.6% to 1.8%. recommendation The Department should update the Committee in six months on how it is adapting to the Industrial Strategy and the metrics it will use to measure success. 6 1 Support for industry Introduction
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.