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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much funding will be allocated to the Made Smarter Adoption North East scheme; and how many (a) small and (b) medium sized businesses that scheme will support.

BEIS is making £0.6m of funding available for Made Smarter Adoption support for SME manufacturers into the North East which will play a crucial role in delivering key BEIS and Government objectives.

This funding will support recovery and resilience following Covid-19; create long term growth for manufacturers by driving productivity and competitiveness and encourage more firms to get on the road to innovation; support levelling up across the North East and help drive down carbon emissions from manufacturing sectors.

The £0.6m funding will enable around 100 manufacturing SMEs in this region to gain increased awareness of industrial digitalisation with 88 in the region being able to access intensive advice. This is projected to generate a net GVA increase of £3.1m and in turn generate a discounted Net Social Benefit (NSB) of £1.9m. There will not be separate ring-fenced funding allocations for (a) small and (b) medium sized firms.