Value for Money

Supporting the UK’s priority industry sectors

Published 12 March 2025 12 recommendations Department for Business & Trade Business and industryEconomic growth nao.org.uk
DBT must improve how it supports UK industries to help government maximise the impact of the Industrial Strategy and grow the economy.

Recommendations (12)

Source: NAO Recommendations Tracker · PAC follow-up below
12
Accepted
12
In Progress
12
NAO Confirmed
Department for Business and Trade
Rec 1 Accepted Work in Progress
DBT should use the framework of the forthcoming Industrial Strategy to review its operating model for supporting industry sectors, build on its capability needs assessment, and enable it to adapt and prioritise its activity and resources accordingly. It should also consider how it engages with and supports those sectors not explicitly covered in the forthcoming Industrial Strategy.
Page 13, 19a Q2 2026-27
Department for Business and Trade
Rec 10 Accepted Work in Progress
DBT should consider how it can collate capital and resource spending on support to business in a more useful way, and use it to inform decision making. It should consider how it can categorise this spending, such as by support type, sector or region.
Page 14, 19e Q1 2027-28
Department for Business and Trade
Rec 11 Accepted Work in Progress
DBT should develop an evidence based decision-making process that demonstrates that it chooses sectoral interventions appropriately and understands what works, and when.
Page 14, 19f Q1 2027-28
Department for Business and Trade
Rec 12 Accepted Work in Progress
DBT should develop its approach to monitoring and evaluation in order to understand measures of success and learn from what works. DBT should develop a programme of evaluation of its business support, focusing on the interventions that could add the most value.
Page 14, 19g Q1 2026-27
Department for Business and Trade
Rec 2 Accepted Work in Progress
DBT should make best use of the learning from how it has developed its current approach to supporting industry. It should review and build on its existing Sector Views and Sector Action Plans to support development of the new Sector Plans.
Page 13, 19b Q1 2027-28
Department for Business and Trade
Rec 3 Accepted Work in Progress
DBT should make best use of the learning from how it has developed its current approach to supporting industry. It should review and build on its mechanisms for engaging with industry and stakeholders and use the learning to inform the development of the new sector councils.
Page 13, 19b, bullet point 2 Q1 2027-28
Department for Business and Trade
Rec 4 Accepted Work in Progress
DBT should undertake work to develop its relationships with other government departments, including to clarify respective roles and responsibilities on growth and in implementing the new Industrial Strategy and growth mission.
Page 13, 19c, bullet point 1 Q1 2027-28
Department for Business and Trade
Rec 5 Accepted Work in Progress
DBT should undertake work to develop its relationships with other government departments, including to establish consistent and effective ways of working.
Page 13, 19c, bullet point 2 Q1 2027-28
Department for Business and Trade
Rec 6 Accepted Work in Progress
DBT should undertake work to develop its relationships with other government departments, including to learn from its more mature relationships to establish effective influencing relationships where it does not own policy levers
Page 13, 19b Q1 2027-28
Department for Business and Trade
Rec 7 Accepted Work in Progress
DBT should be transparent about the metrics it considers, and the trade-offs it makes, when prioritising interventions. It should formalise and articulate clear criteria and metrics.
Page 14, 19d, bullet point 1 Q1 2027-28
Department for Business and Trade
Rec 8 Accepted Work in Progress
DBT should be transparent about the metrics it considers, and the trade-offs it makes, when prioritising interventions. It should record the outcome of these decisions and the agreed trade-offs.
Page 14, 19d, bullet point 2 Q1 2027-28
Department for Business and Trade
Rec 9 Accepted Work in Progress
DBT should be transparent about the metrics it considers, and the trade-offs it makes, when prioritising interventions. It should use this information to inform its approach to future interventions, and to prioritise intervention options, given resource constraints.
Page 14, 19d, bullet point 3 Q1 2027-28

Parliamentary Committee Follow-Up

The Public Accounts Committee examined this NAO report and published its own recommendations. The government responds to PAC recommendations via Treasury Minutes.

33rd Report - Supporting the UK’s priority industry sectors
Public Accounts Committee · 25 June 2025 · 14 recommendations