Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of expanding the British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme to include (a) farmers and (b) food production.

Eligibility for the British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme is informed by the Government’s Industrial Strategy and by the recent consultation on scheme eligibility.

Decisions on eligibility have been taken to drive economic growth in line with the Industrial Strategy, by targeting manufacturing frontier industries within its growth sectors, as well as manufacturing foundational industries that provide important inputs to them, where electricity costs most directly affect international competitiveness.

Farming and food production are therefore not within the scope of the Scheme.