Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what recent discussions he has held with (a) industry representatives and (b) the Northern Ireland Executive on an aerospace industry taskforce to help safeguard jobs in Northern Ireland.
I recently met with representatives of Unite union regarding the challenges currently faced by the aerospace sector in Northern Ireland, including staff retention and the range of Government support measures in place.
As well as the Job Retention Scheme, the UK Government is supporting the UK’s aerospace and aviation industries with over £8.5bn in grants, loans and export guarantees. £2.1bn has also been made available to the UK aerospace sector through the Covid Corporate Financing Facility, and UK Export Finance is supporting £3.5bn of sales in the next 18 months.
This sector will be key to Northern Ireland’s economic recovery and we want to do what we can to safeguard jobs and investment, working alongside the Northern Ireland Executive.