Select committee: Business, Innovation, Science and Trade Committee
Recommendation 14
Ninth Report - UK plc
Published 24 Mar 2023
Paragraph 50
Addressed to Department for Business and Trade
Business, Innovation, Science and Trade Committee UK plc 2050 All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
We note that the Chancellor referred to an ‘industrial strategy’ in his Budget statement, but that no industrial strategy was published. Given the global context referred to by our witnesses, and the very real threat of UK investments being tempted into the European or American markets, we call on the Government to make a statement to clarify whether the Government has an industrial strategy or not. If it does, we call on Ministers to engage with business, investors, and workers’ representatives as soon as possible in order to publish any such strategy for the purposes of scrutiny and private sector clarity.
From: Business, Innovation, Science and Trade Committee, Ninth Report - UK plc (HC 1120), paragraph 50, 24 March 2023
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 7 September 2023 (deadline 23 May 2023).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government's response to the UK plc report mostly sets out existing and planned policy on R&D reliefs, skills, regional productivity and regulation, and expressly agrees on engagement with business over regulation.
- On R&D tax reliefs, the Government says the review is "ongoing" and it "has not yet taken a decision on whether to merge schemes", but "intends to keep open the option of doing so from 2024", with a decision at the next fiscal event.
- On green skills, the Government points to the Green Jobs Delivery Group, established in 2022, and says Government and industry will create a Net Zero and Nature Workforce Action Plan "for publication in 2024".
- On impact assessments, the Government is "committed" to publishing them "where appropriate" and says a reformed Better Regulation Framework will launch "later this summer". Partnerships between industry and Government on specific regulations "should be considered on a case-by-case basis".
- Asked whether it has an industrial strategy, the Government does not directly answer, but says delivering growth in key sectors is a priority and names five growth sectors identified by the Chancellor.