Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many industrial plants employing over 200 people have closed in the last year.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

Please see the letter attached from the Permanent Secretary of the Office for National Statistics.

Lord Redwood

House of Lords

London

SW1A 0PW

26 March 2026

Dear Lord Redwood,

As Permanent Secretary of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking how many industrial plants employing over 200 people have closed in the last year (HL15771).

It is not possible to answer the question as asked because these data are not available by the number of employees. However, by using the quarterly business demography dataset[1], it is possible to make an estimate of the number of businesses within the production industries which have closed in the last year.

The number of businesses within the production industries which have closed in the year 2025 is estimated to be 12,510.

The quarterly business demography statistical release is regarded as ‘official statistics in development’.

Yours sincerely,

Darren Tierney

[1] https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/business/activitysizeandlocation/bulletins/businessdemographyquarterlyexperimentalstatisticsuk/latest