Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the Industrial Strategy takes account of the importance of traditional industries to local areas.

The Industrial Strategy ensures every place, including areas where traditional industries are located, realises its full economic potential. We are working in partnership with local areas to agree a Local Industrial Strategy with every area of England by early 2020, with support for places in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that want one.

Local Industrial Strategies will provide distinctive and long-term visions of how specific places can maximise their contribution to UK productivity, building on existing local strengths and capitalising on the opportunities of the future.