Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the effect that changes to procurement rules for Government contracts announced on 30 October 2015 are having on (a) the UK steel industry and (b) the contracts to British steelmakers have been awarded.

We are monitoring take up of the new steel procurement instructions and departments will be required to report back on how they have applied them to their major projects involving steel.

We will also carry out spot check investigations on a sample of projects through our Mystery Shopper service. This will give an indication of how the changes have impactedon both the UK steel industry and the number of contracts awarded to British steelmakers.

The UK steel industry supports this approach.