Oral Answers to Questions

Blair McDougall Excerpts

Thursday 15th October 2026 Commons Chamber

[Cat Eccles (Stourbridge) (Lab)]

7. What steps his Department is taking to help tackle late payments to small businesses.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (Blair McDougall)]

The Government are determined to tackle the scourge of late payments, which causes the closure of 14,000 businesses and costs the UK economy almost £11 billion a year. The Commercial Payments Bill currently progressing through Parliament will give the UK the strongest laws in the G7 and represents the most significant reform of payment practices in over 25 years. The Bill will ensure that small businesses spend more time on growing, investing and creating jobs and less time on chasing late payments.

[Cat Eccles]

Late payment destroys thousands of viable small firms each year, and poor practices have seen large firms using small suppliers as a free overdraft. In my constituency, the impact is felt by manufacturers and fabricators, with local metalwork and transport supply sectors facing the longest payment delays in the UK. How is the Minister ensuring that there is a change in payment culture and lifting that burden from small businesses?

[Blair McDougall]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right; I know from personal experience how frustrating it is to have large firms use small firms as a source of free finance. The Commercial Payments Bill will clamp down on late payments by introducing maximum payment terms, providing stronger rights to interest and strengthening the powers of the Small Business Commissioner. She is right about the need for a culture change. The message from Government is that this legislation and this change is coming, and large companies should get their payment practices in order right now.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

Rising business rates, wages going up, energy prices rising, national insurance contributions—all those things have an impact on small businesses. My small businesses talk to me about the very issue that the hon. Lady referred to: those who do not pay on time. What can be done to help firms who are not getting the money from the suppliers? Is there somewhere that they can refer to for help?

[Blair McDougall]

The hon. Gentleman is right to raise the issue. I know it is a huge problem in Northern Ireland, as it is in the rest of the UK. One of the great problems with the current system is that a small business has to be aggressive towards its own customers to chase those late payments. The Commercial Payments Bill will turn that power relationship on its head, and people will expect to be paid on time. If they are not, there will be mandatory interest on that.

[Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab)]

8. What steps he is taking to help protect consumers from rogue traders.

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[Richard Quigley (Isle of Wight West) (Lab)]

10. What steps his Department has taken to support the advanced manufacturing sector.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (Blair McDougall)]

The industrial strategy sets out the Government’s long-term approach to boosting investment, productivity and growth, building on the UK’s industrial strengths, including advanced manufacturing. Through the complementary advanced manufacturing sector plan, backed by £4.3 billion of Government funding, we are helping manufacturers to grow and thrive.

[Richard Quigley]

May I say how shocked I am that the hon. Member for Hornchurch and Upminster (Julia Lopez) suggested that your appearance needed any augmentation, Madam Deputy Speaker? On the Isle of Wight, we are incredibly proud of our advanced manufacturing sector and, for an area of its size, the island has one of the biggest concentrations of advanced manufacturing and high-tech engineering jobs in the country. Employers on my side of the island are racing to employ under 25s. We always want to do more, so will the Minister set out how the Government’s drive to buy British, alongside their renewed commitment to strengthening our defence capabilities, will create new opportunities for island manufacturers to secure contracts, invest in growth and create the next generation of skilled jobs on the Isle of Wight?

[Blair McDougall]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right to highlight the huge opportunities for manufacturers on the Isle of Wight. We are determined to use procurement strategically, as other nations do, to back British industry. It is particularly important with shipbuilding. We are expanding the role of the National Shipbuilding Office to oversee that. The renewed investment in defence and shipbuilding will create opportunities across the maritime supply chain, including for the Wight Shipyard Co. and other island manufacturers.

[Paula Barker (Liverpool Wavertree) (Lab)]

11. What assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of levels of service by Royal Mail.

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[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (Blair McDougall)]

Place is central to the industrial strategy. We have been working with Plymouth and the south-west peninsula to support the development of distinctive nationally significant clusters. I visited Plymouth and Cornwall earlier this year to meet the freeport, understand the opportunities around marine autonomy and see for myself Cornwall’s incredible critical mineral potential.

[Noah Law]

As you know, Madam Deputy Speaker, in Cornwall we have a resurgent minerals industry, which can make our country and our communities wealthy once again, but we can only do that if we process what we dig out of the ground. Having strong supply chains is therefore imperative from a national security and a resilience perspective. What steps is the Minister taking, together with No. 10 North, the Treasury and other Departments, to ensure that the key investment case for our area—including the missing midstream, which is battery active material production—will prevent us from having to ship that wealth abroad and will ensure that we create Cornish jobs back home?

[Blair McDougall]

My hon. Friend and the other Cornish Labour MPs are incredible advocates for critical minerals and their potential in the UK. Projects in that part of the world are essential to our ambitions. We are supporting lithium projects in Cornwall, including through an offer in principle of £9.8 million through DRIVE35 for Geothermal Engineering Ltd, as well as a £31 million equity investment in Cornish lithium through the National Wealth Fund. We will continue to work to ensure that we keep more of that value in the UK.

[Rachael Maskell (York Central) (Lab/Co-op)]

13. If he will take steps to help ensure Post Office provision in every community.

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[Martin Vickers (Brigg and Immingham) (Con)]

T2. Tomorrow I will be in Scunthorpe to attend a meeting of the council-led British Steel development board. Is the Secretary of State in a position to give me some positive news that I can pass on?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (Blair McDougall)]

I, too, was in Scunthorpe recently meeting British Steel management and the unions. The positive news we can give them is that Alan Lovell is now in place as chair, and he is working hard to stabilise operations, improve health and safety, and develop the long-term plan that the hon. Gentleman has worked so hard on with to achieve.

[Daniel Francis (Bexleyheath and Crayford) (Lab)]

Over the past year, I have also had countless constituents contact me about the adequacy of postal delivery services across Bexleyheath and Crayford. Along with colleagues, I met the chief executive of Ofcom yesterday to look at what more it can do, but will the Minister outline what assessment has been made of the adequacy of services across Bexleyheath and Crayford and set out what more the Government can do to help my constituents?

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[Josh Newbury (Cannock Chase) (Lab)]

When I visited Alpro and Navara Oat Milling over the summer, I heard how rising energy costs are putting pressure on food manufacturers, with knock-on effects for their supply chain and, ultimately, food inflation. Given the importance of these energy-intensive industries to our economy, how is the Department helping British manufacturers remain competitive, attract investment and mitigate rising food production costs?

[Blair McDougall]

My hon. Friend is a great champion for that sector. The British industrial competitiveness scheme is now open. In addition, we will be reviewing the British industry supercharger later in the year and we will be working closely with the food manufacturing sector as we do that.

[Chris Law (Dundee Central) (SNP)]

As well as breaking the UK’s legally binding climate commitments and contributing to a global climate disaster, the approval of Rosebank will result in the UK continuing to facilitate illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine and being complicit in breaches of international law. Israeli energy company Delek Group, which owns Ithaca Energy, has been named in the United Nations list of businesses whose activities in the west bank have raised particular human rights concerns, and it has received over £200 million in revenue from the Rosebank field. Given that Norway’s sovereign wealth fund and largest pension fund have already divested from Delek, will the Secretary of State confirm that Delek Group Ltd will be one of the companies sanctioned for its role in illegal settlement expansion?

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[Henry Tufnell (Mid and South Pembrokeshire) (Lab)]

I welcome the Government’s support for British industry, including through the British industrial competitiveness scheme. However, the fact that the oil refinery sector is not included in that scheme threatens thousands of jobs and our national energy security. Will the Secretary of State consider expanding the scope of the scheme and reviewing its broader eligibility requirements?

[Blair McDougall]

I thank my hon. Friend for his consistent support for the refining industry. I have been meeting with the industry this week to discuss issues such as the energy issues that he mentions. We recognise that the sector faces real challenges. The work to consider the impacts and the feasibility of bringing refined products, for example, into the scope of the UK carbon border adjustment mechanism is ongoing, and we will certainly continue to engage with him on energy costs and other issues.

[Tessa Munt (Wells and Mendip Hills) (LD)]

I have been contacted by Petruth Paddocks, a family-run camping business on the outskirts of Cheddar, which welcomes more than 20,000 visitors a year and supports more than 50 jobs. Its business rates liability this year has increased by almost 2,700%, from £1,070 per annum to £28,820 per annum, with no meaningful warning and no chance to plan for this catastrophic hike. Will a Minister or the Secretary of State meet me to discuss what can be done in rural Somerset, where so many businesses depend on hospitality and tourism? They really cannot take this kind of kicking.

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[Leigh Ingham (Stafford) (Lab)]

It will surprise no one in this House to hear that I believe growth in every postcode should start in our towns. Will the Minister tell me what we are doing to support brilliant businesses such as Hill Helicopters in my constituency to grow, thrive and export?

[Blair McDougall]

I spent a fantastic day with the aerospace industry last week. Over and over again, they spoke so enthusiastically about the Aerospace Technology Institute and the investment that we are putting into the sector. I pay tribute to the company that my hon. Friend mentions in her constituency. Advanced manufacturing of all sorts is one of the things that we are really great at in this country, which is why we are backing it with the industrial strategy.

[Mr Will Forster (Woking) (LD)]

Last month, McLaren announced a £500 million investment, which will create 1,000 jobs. That is particularly beneficial in my constituency, and I know that the Secretary of State visited the constituency to share in that good news. What steps are he and the Government taking to ensure that McLaren and other businesses can expand in that way?

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[Euan Stainbank (Falkirk) (Lab)]

With Syngenta ending its Grangemouth operations despite the Government’s substantial offer to intervene, we have a narrow window to avoid this incredibly well-positioned site lying vacant. What interventions are the Government prepared to make to seriously secure new industry and new jobs for this site and, more broadly, the Grangemouth industrial complex this side of 2030?

[Blair McDougall]

My hon. Friend is a constant advocate for the Grangemouth site. Last night, I and my officials met representatives of the National Wealth Fund and the Office for Investment to push forward on this. We have a taskforce meeting on Monday at which, among other things, we will be pushing for faster action to prepare the groundwork for investment, so that we can deploy the £200 million from the National Wealth Fund that we have set aside.

[Jayne Kirkham (Truro and Falmouth) (Lab/Co-op)]

Truro lost its post office last week as well, without a temporary alternative. Will the Minister consider consulting with the Post Office on alternatives when this happens in main cities and looking again at the franchise model, which seems to leave post office branches very vulnerable?

[Perran Moon (Camborne and Redruth) (Lab)]

Plans to revive Cornish tin and tungsten mining are well advanced with the support of the National Wealth Fund. However, if tin or tungsten were to be brought to the surface today, it would have to be shipped to the other side of the world for refining and processing, with only a fraction coming back to the UK at seriously increased cost. When Cornish MPs meet the Minister next week, can we discuss plans from Government to invest in domestic refinement of tin and tungsten?

[Blair McDougall]

We will absolutely discuss that. As my hon. Friend knows—because he talks to me about this issue at every available opportunity—we are determined to make sure that more of the value of that entire process remains in the UK, which is why we are putting £50 million on the table for exactly that sort of development work.

[Ian Lavery (Blyth and Ashington) (Lab)]

The Royal Mail sorting offices in my patch are in absolute chaos—they are in meltdown—and I am really concerned that someone will end up in a tragic situation because of the lack of service. I have met Royal Mail on numerous occasions and there has been no change whatsoever—in fact, the service is getting worse. What can the Minister do to remedy the situation before somebody needs to be held accountable for a very serious situation?