Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference of the oral contribution by the Rt hon. Member for North West Essex of 12 April 2025, Official Report, column 846, what estimate his Department made of the potential impact of the proposed commercial deal with Jingye on (a) jobs and (b) cost to the public purse.

This Government has not been able to assess the potential impacts of the last Government’s proposed commercial deal with Jingye given it does not exist. We do know there had been a lack of progress before this Government took office.

This Government has worked intensively with Jingye to try and reach a co-investment deal that met our public accountability and legal requirements, worked for local people and UK taxpayers, safeguarded as many jobs as possible, and put British Steel on a sustainable footing for the future. When Jingye rejected an offer of substantial financial support and took steps to enact pre-emptive blast furnace closures, we took prompt action which resulted in British Steel cancelling the consultation on a potential 2,700 redundancies.