33rd Report - Supporting the UK’s priority industry sectors

Select Committee

Public Accounts Committee HC 1070 25 June 2025

Report Status Government responded

Conclusions & Recommendations 28 items (9 recs)

Source View on Parliament website

Government Response (AI assessment · 28 of 28 classified)

Accepted 16

Acknowledged 12

Government response

Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Thirty-third report from Session 2024-26 · published 18 Sep 2025

Read the government response ↗ Response on the tracker

Recommendations & Conclusions

16 results

2 Conclusion Accepted

Develop collaboration with other departments, formalising sector roles and improving intelligence sharing.

Conclusion

The Department is not working effectively enough with other departments to support industry and achieve the greatest impact. The Department views the economy through the lens of 10 economic sectors and 41 sub-sectors. While the Department is responsible for supporting … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government states it developed the Industrial Strategy in partnership with other departments, established governance and boards for coordination, and implemented a new digital Strategic Company Insight Tool (SCIT) to improve cross-government intelligence sharing, with usage currently expanding.

HM Treasury

3 Conclusion Accepted

Consolidate understanding of industry support and improve reporting to inform future decision-making.

Conclusion

The Department lacks a comprehensive understanding of its support for industry, including how much it spends per sector and the types of support it offers. The Department supports industry through a range of interventions, which vary in form and scale. … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government states it will collaborate across government to enhance tracking and reporting of support to Industrial Strategy sectors, refine sector definitions, and conduct strategic analysis to assess policy effectiveness and economic trends.

HM Treasury

4 Conclusion Accepted

Provide greater transparency on factors and processes used for balancing industry support decisions.

Conclusion

It is not clear how the Department balances multiple government objectives, such as growth and net zero, when making decisions about how to support industry. Government needs to consider a wide range of metrics when making investment decisions including employment, … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government will provide greater transparency by using new 'place-based business cases' and supplementary guidance to assess projects and private sector contributions. It will also work with various bodies to maximise the impact of business-facing funds, with an approach already outlined in the Industrial Strategy's Technical Annex and a new supply chain centre being established.

HM Treasury

5 Conclusion Accepted

Review internal structures and resourcing to align with Industrial Strategy objectives and emerging issues.

Conclusion

There is a risk that the Department is not set up internally to support the aims of the forthcoming Industrial Strategy and to respond to ongoing issues facing UK businesses. The composition of sector teams in the Department’s Business Group … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government states it has transitioned the Industrial Strategy Unit into a permanent delivery unit and has set out plans to restructure teams to focus on Industrial Strategy delivery, with this transformation already in progress and mostly completed by Spring 2026.

HM Treasury

6 Conclusion Accepted

Update Committee on Industrial Strategy adaptation and metrics for measuring its success.

Conclusion

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 … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government has committed to regularly reviewing progress against the Industrial Strategy, supported by the ISAC, and has implemented a public monitoring and evaluation approach underpinned by an impact pathway outlined in the technical annex. All government departments will carry out monitoring and evaluation for their individual policies and Sector Plans.

HM Treasury

1 Conclusion Accepted

Committee reviewed evidence on government support for UK’s priority industry sectors

Conclusion

On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from the Department for Business and Trade (the Department) and HM Treasury on support for the UK’s priority industry sectors.1

Government Response Summary

The government states it conducted a detailed consultation, introduced a cross-government Account Management initiative with dedicated account managers and ministerial engagement, and established a dedicated area to coordinate business engagement. It also published 'The UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy' and will explore establishing dedicated Sector Offices.

HM Treasury

7 Recommendation Accepted

Businesses receive duplicate or conflicting information from multiple government departments

Recommendation

To support industry, government must listen to the needs of businesses. The Department told us that while every government department engages with industry in some form, the Department for Business and Trade aspires to be a ‘front door’ for all … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government conducted a detailed consultation with business through the green paper Invest 2035, introduced a cross-government Account Management initiative, appointing dedicated account managers to lead strategic relationships with key businesses, and established a dedicated area to coordinate business engagement and insights.

HM Treasury

8 Recommendation Accepted

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 … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government has developed a new cross government digital customer relationship management system called the Strategic Company Insight Tool (SCIT) to improve the sharing of business intelligence, enable logging of business engagements, sharing company statistics, business insights and government priorities for engagement.

HM Treasury

9 Recommendation Accepted

Department struggles monitoring sector engagement with inaccessible digital systems and inconsistent records

Recommendation

We asked the Department about its ability to monitor its engagement with economic sectors, given that officials do not consistently record their interactions with companies, and its digital system — DataHub — is not accessible across the whole of Whitehall.17 … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government developed a cross government digital customer relationship management system called the Strategic Company Insight Tool (SCIT) to improve the sharing of business intelligence.

HM Treasury

12 Conclusion Accepted

Office for Life Sciences model shows potential for integrated cross-departmental working

Conclusion

In the absence of formal agreements, the NAO reported that teams had taken different approaches to agree roles and that structures had emerged to overcome cross-departmental barriers.24 The Department highlighted the Office for Life Sciences (OLS), its cross-department skills forum, … Read more

Government Response Summary

The department developed the whole of the Industrial Strategy in partnership with other departments and this ongoing programme of work involves sector councils and taskforces.

HM Treasury

16 Recommendation Accepted

Department lacks complete overview and accurate data on industry support spending

Recommendation

The Department does not have a complete overview or accurate data on what it, and wider government, spends on supporting industry. The Department found it difficult to readily provide the NAO with a breakdown of its support for industry. It … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government will collaborate across government and public bodies to enhance tracking and reporting of support to the Industrial Strategy sectors, refine sector definitions, and conduct strategic analysis to assess policy effectiveness and economic trends.

HM Treasury

20 Recommendation Accepted

Cross-Whitehall collaboration essential for Industrial Strategy delivery despite misaligned objectives

Recommendation

We asked the Department to clarify its relationships with other departments and the influence it has in decision-making and trade-offs.40 The Department recognised it cannot deliver the forthcoming Industrial Strategy in isolation, and that other government departments have a role … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government developed a cross government digital customer relationship management system called the Strategic Company Insight Tool (SCIT) to improve the sharing of business intelligence.

HM Treasury

25 Conclusion Accepted

Industrial Strategy prioritisation of growth sectors may disappoint other industries

Conclusion

The Department said it recognises that, with limited resources, it will be required to make difficult decisions about what it is prioritising in the forthcoming Strategy, noting that “some people will be disappointed in what we are able to do … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government will align industry support with strategic priorities, introduce new 'place-based business cases' and supplementary guidance, and collaborate with advisory bodies by Summer 2026 to maximize impact across jobs, skills, and regional growth. It also details the analytical approach used to identify and support various industries within the Industrial Strategy.

HM Treasury

26 Conclusion Accepted

Department unable to detail Industrial Strategy's future funding and scope currently.

Conclusion

We asked the Department what the forthcoming Industrial Strategy will mean for the scale and composition of its support for industry going forward. The Department told us it was preparing for an upcoming spending review and therefore could not provide … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government states the Modern Industrial Strategy priorities are embedded in budgets and commits to collaborating across government to enhance tracking, reporting, and strategic analysis of support for Industrial Strategy sectors, developing an analytical program with ISAC for monitoring and evaluation.

HM Treasury

27 Conclusion Accepted

Inconsistent monitoring and evaluation evident across Department's industry support programmes.

Conclusion

We asked the Department about gaps in its monitoring and evaluation of support programmes.54 Of the Department’s Business Group’s 32 initiatives to support sectors, it provided monitoring and evaluation evidence for just 11.55 The Department told us there is a … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government states it has implemented a recommendation (though the committee labelled it a conclusion) by committing to regularly review progress against the Industrial Strategy, supported by the ISAC and a public monitoring and evaluation approach. This framework is underpinned by an impact pathway for tracking individual policies and ensures government departments conduct M&E for their policies.

HM Treasury

28 Conclusion Accepted

Department lacks specific objectives for Industrial Strategy despite setting a growth target.

Conclusion

We asked the Department how it would measure success. Officials told us growth was its overarching objective as measured by GDP per head and real household disposable income. The Department highlighted that trade-offs were required under an industrial strategy and … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government states it has implemented a recommendation (though the committee labelled it a conclusion) by committing to regularly review progress against the Industrial Strategy, supported by the ISAC and a public monitoring and evaluation approach. They have defined top-level objectives as increases in GDP per capita and Real Household Disposable Income, underpinned by an impact pathway.

HM Treasury