Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the steel import quota regime due to take effect on 1 July 2026 on UK advanced manufacturing sectors that rely on specialist steels not currently produced or available at commercial scale in the UK.

The new steel trade measure has been designed to only cover steel requirements that can be met in the UK. Where this is not feasible for technical reasons, for example where single product codes contain different sizes or grades of steel products, quota sizes have been set with the aim of allowing continued availability of goods to UK downstream users without unnecessary additional costs. We have engaged extensively with wider industry to inform the measure’s design and will continue to do so.

We will review the measure after 12 months to ensure it remains effective and the balance is right for producers and downstream manufacturers.