British Steel

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am 12:11 pm ar 8 Tachwedd 2023.

Danfonwch hysbysiad imi am ddadleuon fel hyn

Photo of Nusrat Ghani Nusrat Ghani Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade) (jointly with the Cabinet Office) 12:11, 8 Tachwedd 2023

I of course agree with my hon. Friend’s first point: there is nobody more vocal about steel than my hon. Friend Holly Mumby-Croft. We have had a number of programmes in place to support the steel sector, because it has a number of challenges, as it has in many continental European countries. Fundamentally, Putin’s invasion of Ukraine caused energy costs to skyrocket, and we had in place an energy costs relief scheme for the steel sector, which has been worth up to £730 million since 2013. We now have the supercharger in place; I have spoken about the steel procurement policy note to ensure that there is more UK steel procured in UK markets; and, obviously, we provided support for Tata recently and Celsa previously. We are doing everything that we can—with my hon. Friend the Member for Scunthorpe, of course—to get the best deal possible for Scunthorpe, but these are commercial decisions and they are ongoing.