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 encourage UK companies to buy British steel.

We have commissioned independent research into future market opportunities for UK steel, which has involved substantial dialogue with existing and potential steel consumers across the whole of the UK. We are actively encouraging the UK steel sector to identify the capabilities it will need to act on the findings, and use this information to ensure they are well placed to plan and bid for future work.

This is further complemented by the Government publishing details of upcoming steel requirements for national infrastructure projects which shows how the government plans to use three million tonnes of steel until 2020 on infrastructure projects such as High Speed 2 (HS2), the construction of Hinkley Point, and the maintenance and upgrading of the UK’s motorway network. This steel-specific pipeline further builds upon the National Infrastructure and Construction Pipeline, which set out over £500 billion worth of planned private and public investment; both which enable UK companies to anticipate material demand.