Oral Answers to Questions

Alan Strickland Excerpts

Thursday 30th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Justin Madders]

I thank the hon. Member for his question. He is right to recognise that fireworks are used at a number of events throughout the year, but it would be wrong to characterise that as people having to expect that there will be noise. There is now a sufficient number of lower-decibel products on the market for everyone to act more responsibly, and we will be exploring that in our meetings over the coming weeks.

[Alan Strickland (Newton Aycliffe and Spennymoor) (Lab)]

4. What progress his Department has made on developing an industrial strategy.

[Tracy Gilbert (Edinburgh North and Leith) (Lab)]

10. What progress his Department has made on developing an industrial strategy.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Minister for Industry (Sarah Jones)]

This Department and, indeed, Departments across Government are working extensively on developing our industrial strategy, which the Conservative party opposes, but which business and industry welcome. Last month, we launched the Industrial Strategy Advisory Council, comprising a very impressive group of the UK’s top business leaders, policy experts and trade union leaders. My right hon. Friends the Chancellor and the Secretary of State for Business and Trade attended the council’s inaugural meeting on 17 December. In addition, we are currently analysing more than 3,000 responses to the Industrial Strategy Green Paper from businesses, academics, think-tanks and unions, and their insights and feedback are incredibly valuable as we develop the strategy.

[Alan Strickland]

I strongly welcome the inclusion of defence in the draft industrial strategy and was pleased yesterday to host a roundtable in Sedgefield with the Minister for Defence Procurement and Industry. Many of the innovative small and medium-sized enterprises that we talked to spoke of the struggles that they have with red tape, bureaucracy and contracting with Departments across Whitehall. How will Ministers grab the opportunity of the industrial strategy to remove this red tape, which too often can thwart SME growth?

[Sarah Jones]

I am really pleased my hon. Friend held that roundtable. It is quite a turning point to have an industrial strategy with defence as one of the sectors; building new relationships across Departments with colleagues who work in defence is a really powerful and important thing to do. He speaks to a wider problem face by a lot of industry when it comes to dealing with Government agencies and Departments. We are working hard to make these things easier, because growth is our priority and we have to break down those barriers.