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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how often the Retail Sector Council meets; and whether the dates of these meetings are in the public domain.

The Retail Sector Council meets approximately three times a year. They first met in March, then June and November of 2018. Their next meeting is scheduled for February.

The UK retail sector is one of the largest employers in the country, with a workforce of over three million and accounting for around 5.1% of economic output with sales of nearly £360 billion in 2017.

The latest ONS retail briefing shows that for the whole of 2018, retail sales in terms of quantity bought increased by 2.7% and Total Retail sales in 2018 increased to £368bn in 2018, an increase of 3%, but we and the Council recognise that the sector faces some key challenges.

The Council is prioritising its work to address the key challenges facing the sector and will initially focus on; costs to business, skills and lifelong learning, employment protection, consumer protection, the circular economy and the Industrial Strategy. The priority areas were selected by the industry and each workstream will be led by a senior industry figure.