Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans, if any, they have to implement a long-term strategy to help boost growth in the manufacturing sector.

Britain has a proud manufacturing heritage currently supporting 2.7 million jobs across the country. Through our modern Industrial Strategy, we are creating opportunities for UK manufacturing to build on its strengths and continue to grow.

We are working closely with industry to secure a strong future for UK manufacturers through major new investment in research, with a commitment to increase total R&D investment to 2.4% of GDP by 2027. In addition, we are:

• Investing £1bn through the ambitious new Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, bringing together world class UK research with business investment to develop the technologies and industries of the future;
• Reforming our technical education system to achieve a world-class status;
• Developing a National Retraining Scheme to support adults to upskill and reskill throughout their career as the economy changes;
• Creating the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, a domestic programme of investment to boost productivity and reduce economic inequality across the country following our departure from the European Union;
• Working with industry to exploit opportunities highlighted in the Made Smarter Review, which identifies significant benefits to the UK from integrating digital technology into manufacturing through a strong government and industry partnership.