Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to p.12 of The UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy 2025 published on 23 June 2025, on what evidential basis his Department determined which business sectors have high potential.

Invest 2035 (published on GOV.UK in October 2024) identified 8 high-level 'growth driving' sectors (the IS-8): Advanced Manufacturing, Clean Energy Industries, Creative Industries, Defence, Digital and Technologies, Financial Services, Life Sciences, and Professional and Business Services. Pages 18-20 of the Invest 2035 green paper outline the methodology for identifying the IS-8 sectors.

The Technical Annex of the Modern Industrial Strategy 2025 (published on GOV.UK in June 2025) outlines the methodology for identifying the frontier industries within the IS-8 sectors.