Government is taking action to strengthen the competitiveness of UK car manufacturing. From 2027, the British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme will cut electricity costs for frontier industries in Industrial Strategy growth, like automotive, by around £35-£40 per MWh, alongside enhanced British Industry Supercharger support for energy-intensive activities including gigafactories. Through DRIVE35, we are investing up to £4 billion to 2035 to support zero emission vehicle manufacturing, skilled jobs and private investment across the country. Government is also consulting now on the Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate to ensure we find the right balance of maintaining ambitious targets while ensuring industry can achieve them and compliance costs are affordable.

This Government recognises the importance of engineering and advanced manufacturing jobs. Our 10-year Modern Industrial Strategy sets out our long-term approach to unlocking investment and productivity growth, backing national strengths and realising Britain’s potential.

Alongside this, the Advanced Manufacturing Sector Plan, backed by up to £4.3bn in government funding, supports manufacturers across the whole of the UK to grow and thrive, including Leicestershire-based HORIBA MIRA.

We are delivering both in collaboration with regional leaders and will deepen that partnership as we work towards “Rewiring the State”.

Jaguar Land Rover has been clear that the proposed redundancies are focused primarily on non-manufacturing roles. Given this, we do not expect a significant direct impact on supply chain businesses.

The Government recognises the supply chain is facing wider issues. The Suppliers Readiness and Transformation Programme, backed by DRIVE35, delivered in partnership with the North East and West Midlands Metro Mayors has allocated up to £50m per region, supporting locally critical components and capabilities via targeted capital grants.

Decisions regarding logistics operations are a commercial matter for Jaguar Land Rover.

• BIST ministers and officials have been engaging closely with Jaguar Land Rover, trade unions, and local partners to support those affected through this process.
• The Department of Work and Pensions will support the company and its employees through its Rapid Response Service, which provides help with finding new work, training and wider employment support.
• In addition, West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker has announced a £500,000 support package for JLR workers who choose to take voluntary redundancy. This will help people find new jobs, connect them with employers, and provide skills and careers support where they need it.

I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave on 16 September 2026 to questions UIN 29276 and 29277 on Written questions and answers - Written questions, answers and statements - UK Parliament

The Government is closely monitoring the impact of disruption in the Middle East to key shipping routes. This includes regularly assessing the impact on UK supply chains, disruption to trade, including any rerouting of container ships, and of increases in prices of critical goods, shipping and energy. In doing so, we are actively drawing input from businesses on supply chain pressures and their own contingency planning. We also continue to work with businesses and our international partners to protect trade and investment across the Gulf region.

This Government would not issue or maintain an export licence where there is a clear risk the goods might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of Internal Humanitarian Law (IHL), including with respect to the treatment of detainees. Additionally, in light of the unlawful occupation, we will now refuse all licence applications to Israel for exports that materially contribute to the occupation.

We have also reviewed all extant licences for exports to Israel on the same basis. All licences are maintained under careful and continual review, and we can and will suspend or revoke licences where we assess them to be no longer compliant.

The Government recognises the important role that small high street retailers play in supporting local economies and communities, including in Royal Sutton Coldfield.

We have introduced permanently lower business rates multipliers for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure properties, benefiting more than 750,000 premises.

Small businesses can access support through the Business Growth Service, Growth Hubs, the British Business Bank's Business Finance Hub, the Growth Guarantee Scheme, the Business Support Service and the Business Finance Finder.

More broadly, the Government remains committed to rejuvenating high streets and will bring forward a new High Streets Strategy to support businesses, local growth and thriving town centres.

The Government has concluded that Israel's ongoing occupation of Palestinian territory is unlawful. We have already suspended licences for equipment that might be used by the IDF in Gaza. This suspension remains in place. Additionally, we will now refuse all applications for exports that materially contribute to the occupation.

We have also reviewed all extant licences for exports to Israel on the same basis. All licences are maintained under careful and continual review, and we can and will suspend or revoke any that we assess materially contribute to the occupation.

The UK is clear that Israel's illegal settlements and decisions designed to further them are a flagrant violation of international law. The measures announced by the Foreign Secretary on 8 September will restrict the import of goods originating in illegal settlements into the UK. Furthermore, we are taking action on services, creating new designation powers to go after individuals and companies that support, facilitate or profit from illegal settlement activity. In addition, we will ban advertising or promotion of land and property in illegal settlements and strengthen our existing global human rights sanctions regime to go after those who defy international humanitarian law, in Palestine, and around the world.

UK Export Finance (UKEF) works in accordance with government policy over sanctions and export licences, wherever they apply. UKEF does not support transactions involving illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. UKEF’s support for transactions in Israel only extends to projects within its internationally recognised borders.

The measures announced by the Foreign Secretary on 8 September will restrict the import of goods originating in illegal settlements into the UK.

The UK enforces sanctions through a coordinated cross-government approach, with specialist departments and agencies responsible for specific sanctions measures.

Our trade policies are designed to be as effective as possible - UK enforcement effort will be focused on ensuring that goods originating in illegal settlements are not allowed to be imported into the UK. This will be through a coordinated cross-government approach with specialist departments, and agencies responsible for specific sanctions measures.

Where breaches occur, bodies including OFSI (the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, within HMT), HMRC, DfT, the Home Office, OTSI (the Office of Trade Sanctions Implementation, within BIST) and the NCA can use civil and criminal powers, which range from warnings and civil penalties to prosecution in the most serious cases including powers to confiscate assets held to be the proceeds of crime.

The measures announced by the Foreign Secretary on 8 September will include restrictions on the import into the UK of goods originating in illegal settlements. These measures will be carefully designed to target trade with illegal settlements, while protecting legitimate trade between the UK and ‘Green Line’ Israel, including medicines and medical products. The current assessment is that the potential impact on the medicines supply chain will be low, but we will continue to monitor this following the announcement of the measures, in line with the standard process when introducing new Statutory Instruments.

Detailed guidance will be published alongside the implementing legislation to clarify the implications for UK businesses, and we will work closely with industry partners to maintain the medical supply trade and ensure continuity of supply to UK patients.

The UK and Canada share a strong trading relationship, underpinned by our existing free trade agreement and worth £34 billion in 2025[1]. It was bolstered on September 1^st by Canadian ratification of the UK’s accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. This will provide further opportunities for businesses.

In addition, the UK-Canada Economic and Trade Working Group was set up to strengthen bilateral trade ties as joint trusted and reliable partners. It has a number of priority workstreams to further grow trade and drive cooperation, including a review of the UK-Canada Trade Continuity Agreement’s Rules of Origin chapter. This work is currently underway, and we aim to conclude it over the coming months.

[1] Canada trade and investment factsheet

The Government has concluded that Israel’s ongoing occupation of Palestinian territory is unlawful.

We have already suspended licences for equipment that might be used by the IDF in Gaza. This suspension remains in place. Additionally, we will now refuse all applications for exports that materially contribute to the occupation.

We have also reviewed all extant licences for exports to Israel on the same basis. All licences are maintained under careful and continual review, and we can and will suspend or revoke any that we assess materially contribute to the occupation.

No additional licences have been revoked or suspended since 8 September 2026. This is largely because licences for items that might materially contribute to the occupation have already been suspended because of Israel’s conduct in the Gaza conflict. We now have in effect an additional lock on relevant licences.

The Government has concluded that Israel’s ongoing occupation of Palestinian territory is unlawful.

We have already suspended licences for equipment that might be used by the IDF in Gaza. This suspension remains in place. Additionally, we will now refuse all applications for exports that materially contribute to the occupation.

We have also reviewed all extant licences for exports to Israel on the same basis. All licences are maintained under careful and continual review, and we can and will suspend or revoke any that we assess materially contribute to the occupation.

No additional licences have been revoked or suspended since 8 September 2026. This is largely because licences for items that might materially contribute to the occupation have already been suspended because of Israel’s conduct in the Gaza conflict. We now have in effect an additional lock on relevant licences.

The Insolvency Service did not, before April 2025, record investigations in a way that consistently identifies every case where phoenix activity formed part of the misconduct. Partial management information may be identified, but it would not provide a complete picture because phoenix activity may have been recorded under wider misconduct allegations. Internal management information for 2025/26 shows 123 civil investigations and 50 criminal investigations connected with abusive phoenix behaviours. Enforcement outcomes connected with abusive phoenix behaviours in 2025/26 included 88 director disqualifications, 18 companies being wound up and 5 criminal convictions.

323 market access barriers were reported in the financial year 2025/26. In the financial year 2025 - 26, the Department resolved 133 barriers in full, worth around £13 billion in potential additional exports to UK businesses over 5 years. These are valued using the BIST methodology on valuing market access barriers published on Gov.UK.

The impact on UK exports of removing these market access barriers can take several years following the resolution of a barrier. Furthermore, the extent to which UK exporters are able to realise the potential value of the opportunity related to a market access barrier can depend on a variety of wider factors, such as global trading conditions. The Department is monitoring take-up and we will review impact over time in line with standard obligations to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of government interventions.

My Department publishes a series of policy and sector guides for new Free Trade Agreements at Entry into Force (EIF). We have recently published guides on the UK-India FTA including nine sector guides. We have also published guides for the UK’s FTAs with Australia, New Zealand, and CPTPP, which can be found on Business.gov.uk market pages. We will continue to publish guides for future FTAs at EIF.

For new FTAs, we publish impact assessments (IAs) to support the parliamentary scrutiny process, including sector assessments. The IAs for FTAs with Australia, New Zealand, CPTPP, and India can be found on gov.uk.