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 merits of extending the British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme to include the agricultural sector.

BICS is a targeted scheme designed to support a defined group of sectors within the Industrial Strategy’s growth sectors (IS-8), where electricity cost relief is expected to have the greatest impact on growth; and within that, focusing on manufacturing activity that is mobile and exposed to international competition.

The IS-8 sectors were selected after a yearlong process and underpinned by rigorous analysis and including a public consultation in the autumn of 2024, culminating in the launch of the modern Industrial Strategy in the summer of 2025. As Agriculture was assessed during this period, no reassessment is currently planned.