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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to improve productivity in British commerce and industry; and if he will make a statement.

In January 2017 we launched our Industrial Strategy Green Paper, ‘Building our Industrial Strategy’.

The objective of our modern Industrial Strategy is to improve living standards and drive economic growth by increasing productivity and making sure that growth is spread across the whole country.

We have set up a £23 billion National Productivity Investment Fund to drive improved productivity across the country; including a £4.7bn increase in investment for science, research and innovation – the biggest increase in any Parliament in almost 40 years.

We are also supporting a new private sector initiative led by Sir Charlie Mayfield with up to £13 million grant funding over three years to raise business awareness of productivity and to provide practical tools to businesses to improve productivity.