Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps he is taking to support manufacturing in the UK.

This government wants to drive manufacturing growth. Manufacturing makes an important contribution to private capital, R&D, and exports, which leads to higher productivity, more investment and more jobs.

Building on existing support to industry, government will introduce a new Industrial Strategy to drive long-term sustainable, inclusive and secure growth - through securing investment into crucial sectors of the economy.

As announced in the Industrial Strategy Green Paper published on 14 October, advanced manufacturing has been selected as one of eight growth-driving sectors. The Strategy will also look at support for subsectors which provide critical inputs and infrastructure to these sectors.