Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to support more women into the manufacturing industry.

The UK Government is aware of the current underrepresentation of women in manufacturing and is committed to advancing diversity within the sector. In the recently published Advanced Manufacturing Sector Plan we state our intent to improve the equality profile of the sector through a Make UK-led equalities taskforce and by sponsoring an Equality Charter. This will be co-developed with industry stakeholders, including the aim of achieving 35% representation of women in the UK manufacturing sector by 2035.