Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2015-12-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what discussions his Department had with manufacturers prior to its decision to close the Manufacturing Advisory Service.

Anna Soubry

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills did not consult specifically on the decision to close the Manufacturing Advisory Service as this was a commercially sensitive decision. However, through our ongoing discussions with manufacturers and their representatives, there has been wide recognition that the best way for Government to support manufacturers is by getting the fundamentals of the economy right. We are creating a highly competitive business environment to make the UK an attractive location for manufacturing investment, supporting export success, boosting skills and protecting spending on innovation and the cutting edge smart digital manufacturing technologies which will drive the strong UK productivity growth in the future.