Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report by Make UK Manufacturing Outlook 2023 Quarter 3, published on 14 September; and in particular, the findings that there has been a (1) "slowdown in employment growth", and (2) "a decline in output performance which is also mirrored by the performance of orders which have sunk into negative territory".

The latest ONS statistics present marginal monthly declines in the number of pay-rolled manufacturing employees[1] in July and August 2023 following modest increases throughout the rest of 2023. Overall, the number of pay-rolled employees in the sector has increased by 0.3% in the year to August.

ONS Index of Production data[2] indicates that manufacturing output had a monthly decline of 0.7% in July 2023 following a 3.9% increase in the year to June.

Overall, the latest data shows manufacturing output is estimated to have increased by 3.2% in the year to July.

[1] ONS PAYE Real Time Information https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/realtimeinformationstatisticsreferencetablenonseasonallyadjusted

[2] ONS Index of Production https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/economicoutputandproductivity/output/datasets/outputoftheproductionindustries