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

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to Britishvolt entering into administration, what steps they are taking to ensure the secure and sustainable supply of electric vehicle batteries to British manufacturers.

The Government remains committed to Levelling Up and is actively engaging with companies to secure investments that will ensure the UK remains a world leader in automotive manufacturing.

We continue to work through the Automotive Transition Fund (ATF) to progress plans to build a globally competitive electric vehicle supply chain in the UK, which includes unlocking private investment in gigafactories, battery material supply chains, motors, power electronics, and fuel cell systems.

We have invested record sums in battery R&D – last October we announced a record £211 million uplift for the Faraday Battery Challenge, which brought the overall budget of this ambitious programme to £541 million. We recently awarded £27.6 million from this funding to 17 UK projects to support innovation in EV battery technology.