It is essential that the government’s forthcoming Industrial Strategy has clear measures of success and effective processes for monitoring and evaluation. The government’s forthcoming Industrial Strategy is central to its economic growth mission. The Department is placing great emphasis on the Strategy and sees it as an opportunity to set a clear strategic direction for the UK economy over the next decade. The Department is less clear however on the practical implications of the Strategy and how it will change the nature of its support for industry, noting at the time we took evidence that it was in the middle of a spending review process. The Department acknowledges that its monitoring and evaluation has been inconsistent and, moving forward, wishes to embed evaluation from the start of its interventions. The Strategy provides the Department, HM Treasury and wider government an opportunity to address these shortcomings and set clear measures of success. While the government has yet to specify objectives for its Industrial Strategy, the Department’s Permanent Secretary is clear that it would be a failure if, in two to three years, the UK’s growth rate had not improved to at least the G7 average from 1.6% to 1.8%. recommendation The Department should update the Committee in six months on how it is adapting to the Industrial Strategy and the metrics it will use to measure success. 6 1 Support for industry Introduction