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Department improved intelligence sharing and single account management for top businesses

Recommendation
The Department recognised the importance of sharing business intelligence across government. It said that while the legal and technical issues surrounding this could be resolved, creating the right culture and incentives was harder. The Department told us it takes an account management approach to structure its engagement with industry but that it recognises that across Whitehall, departments need to be more disciplined in checking with account owners and sharing information.15 The Department told us it has worked with HM Treasury and Downing Street on its ‘top accounts’. It explained it had identified “50 companies [with a] disproportionate impact on the growth mission and industrial policy” and had put in place a new system. The Department told us that, as a consequence: When senior officials and Ministers are speaking to those companies, everyone knows who has talked to whom. We know what the issues of concern are from that company and how they are being progressed, and we have a single senior person, at both ministerial and official level, to own that relationship.16
Government Response

A response document is linked to this report, dated 18 September 2025. Response attribution to this conclusion has not been verified. Read the response document.

Addressee Bodies
HM Treasury
Timeline
Recommendation age 1.2 yr
Report published 25 Jun 2025