Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the state of the chemicals industry in the UK.

The Government recognises the importance of the chemicals sector. The Industrial Strategy identifies chemicals as a vital foundational sector that underpins the UK’s high-growth industries, while also being essential to many supply chains.

Government is committed to tackling competitiveness issues facing the sector. These challenges are not unique to any one company and are impacting chemical and wider energy intensive businesses across Europe.

We are backing the chemicals sector through the Industrial Strategy with targeted support to bring down energy costs and recently through a targeted support package at INEOS Grangemouth to protect vital chemical production and jobs.