Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether his Department has made an assessment of the level of importance of the cement industry to the economy and the number of jobs reliant on it.

No specific assessment on the importance of the cement industry to the economy or number of jobs reliant on it has been conducted. However, the Government is aware of the sector's importance to the economy and government priorities as well as the number of jobs it supports across the country. The Government regularly engages with the cement sector's main trade association, the Mineral Products Association, to understand the sector's challenges and explore how best to support it. The Government delivers the British Industry Supercharger which aims to mitigate carbon leakage and improve the competitiveness of eligible energy-intensive industries by relieving them from some electricity policy costs and network costs. Businesses in the cement sector currently receive support under this scheme.