Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the Advanced Manufacturing sector plan on food and drink manufacturers.

The Government recognises the importance of the food and drink sector as the largest manufacturing industry in the UK. The Industrial Strategy will support the whole economy, including businesses outside the eight growth-driving sectors, through an improved operating environment and long-term stability.

The Advanced Manufacturing sector operates as an ecosystem of complex supply chains and outputs, not as a set of siloed industries. It therefore includes a range of cross cutting interventions that have wide-spread benefits across the sector including for food and drink manufacturers such as innovation, tech adoption and broader business environment measures such as planning.