Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, with reference to the Replacing Animals in Science strategy, (a) what progress his Department has made towards enabling research funders to ensure scrutiny of animal use in grant decisions and (b) whether guidance is provided to funding assessment panels on evaluating non-animal alternative methods.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is leading delivery of the commitment to enable funders to ensure thorough scrutiny of animal use in funding decisions. UKRI is developing its funding service to support this and encourage research applicants to develop and implement alternatives to animal use. UKRI’s policy on research and innovation involving animals also encourages applications with the potential to advance the 3Rs (Replacement, Reduction and Refinement). Work to strengthen consideration of alternative methods in funding decisions is continuing, with further progress to be reported through implementation of the Replacing Animals in Science strategy.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, if his Department will confirm whether the Responsible Business Conduct Review will be published ahead of the UK-EU summit on the 20th of November 2026.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade) (Jointly with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Responsible Business Conduct Review has been completed. With the formation of a new government, we are considering the findings with fresh eyes and will set out our position in due course.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of implementing trade remedies on imports of glass packaging from Turkey.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade) (Jointly with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
On 5 March 2026 the Trade Remedies Authority (TRA) opened a subsidy investigation on glass containers from Turkey.
The TRA submits evidence-based determinations to the Secretary of State, inclusive of an assessment of whether a measure would be in the UK’s economic interest. Where the TRA recommends a measure, the Secretary of State considers the evidence alongside relevant matters in the public interest before taking a decision.
The TRA is an independent arms-length body and as such it would not be appropriate to comment further. All TRA recommendations are published on its public file at the appropriate time.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, what assessment his Department has made of the potential benefits of the use of mandatory origin labelling in preventing goods produced in illegal Israeli settlements from entering the UK.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade) (Jointly with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The measures announced by the Foreign Secretary on 8 September will restrict the import of goods originating in illegal settlements into the UK.
This restriction will be enforced through the UK sanctions regime and will be focused on ensuring that goods originating in illegal settlements are not allowed to be imported into the UK. As such, mandatory origin labelling will not be required as sanctioned goods will not be permitted to enter the UK.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, when HM Revenue and Customs last updated the non-eligible postcode list published under the Notice to Importers: imports from Israel into the United Kingdom; and whether that data is shared with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade and Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to support labelling enforcement.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade) (Jointly with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The non-eligible postcode list was last updated on 22 August 2025 and HMRC work in cooperation with the relevant government departments on enforcement. However, as of 8 September the Foreign Secretary has announced an import ban on goods from Israeli Settlements. This ban will subsume our existing measures and by design is aimed at being disruptive to the economic drivers that help illegal settlements grow. Detailed guidance for businesses on the implications of this will be published alongside the legislation, and we will work closely with colleagues across government on the design and enforcement of these new measures.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, with reference to the press release entitled Patients to benefit from faster access to medicines as UK moves away from animal testing in science, published on 12 August 2026, if he will provide a breakdown of that funding, including the (a) name of each project, (b) recipient organisation and (c) amount awarded to each project.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Innovate UK awarded funding to the following projects: VivoSphere CardioSafe Platform for Reproducible, Regulatory-Ready In Vitro Cardiotoxicity Screening (VivoSphere UK, £200,000); RITMO (BiomimX Srl, £199,991); a cardiovascular safety framework (University of Nottingham, £198,464); Integrated MPS-PBPK Platform for Non Animal Human PK Prediction (CN Bio Innovations, £180,980); chemically expanded hepatocytes for pharmacokinetic studies (University of Edinburgh, £194,563); Human Representative In Vitro Models for Ear Therapeutics (CamGene Therapeutics, £196,194); CANVAS (Biofoundry Energy, £197,092); a cardiovascular safety platform (InoCardia, £188,966); computational prediction of lipid nanoparticle pharmacokinetics (Nanograb, £199,390); and PKBridge (IOTeach, £197,500).
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if he will set a target date for the publication of the Critical Minerals Strategy.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Critical minerals have been included in the recently published National Security Strategy and also in the UK Government’s Resilience Action Plan, highlighting their fundamental importance to safeguarding the UK's economic security and resilience.
Thanks to the extensive engagement and insights from our industry and expert stakeholders as well as through cross-government collaboration, we have developed a powerful new vision and plan for securing critical minerals in the UK. Critical Minerals were identified as a foundational industry to growth driving sectors in the Industry Strategy.
We will continue to refine this ahead of publication this year, taking into account the evolving international context.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to undertake regular assessments of the exposure of supply chains to Uyghur forced labour.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
This Government stands firm on human rights, including the repression of Uyghurs, and continues to work with international partners to find ways of holding China to account.
The Government’s Overseas Business Risk guidance sets out the risks of operating in certain regions and urges companies to conduct appropriate due diligence, in line with the UN Guiding Principle on Business and Human Rights and the OECD Guidelines on Responsible Business Conduct.
In the Trade Strategy, the Government launched a review into responsible business conduct. The review is considering how we can best tackle supply chain harms, such as forced labour. This includes consideration of measures to improve supply chain transparency and traceability.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether his Department plans to publish a timeline for the Fair Work Agency becoming fully operational.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Creating the Fair Work Agency (FWA) is a complex process that requires primary legislation. The Employment Rights Bill is the first phase of delivering the FWA.
Implementation will occur in phases following Royal Assent to ensure a smooth and effective transition. We will provide more information on timings in due course.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of purchasing wind turbines from Chinese manufacturers on the UK steel industry.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The UK steel industry has a long-term future under this Government. This month we launched the Plan for Steel Consultation, to look at the long-term issues facing the industry. This includes assessing how domestic steel producers could fulfil more UK demand for steel in downstream industries. Britain is open for business, and this Government has committed up to £2.5 billion to the future of steel to protect our industrial heartlands, maintain jobs, and drive growth as part of our Plan for Change