The government is considering establishing new “sector offices” to help support the eight “high growth sectors” identified in the industrial strategy.
The Department for Business and Trade said these offices would “build on successful models like the Office for Life Sciences”.
The department revealed the plans in its August Treasury Minutes response to a Public Accounts Committee report on the government’s support for the UK’s priority industry sectors.
The PAC report, published in June, called for DBT to do more to make it easier for industry to engage with government. It said the department should clarify its account management processes for large and small businesses, including ownership, roles and responsibilities across departments; and set out its ongoing general support offer for industry, and how businesses can access what they need from government to address barriers to growth.
In its response, DBT said its new industrial strategy, published in June, had set out a “whole-of-government” plan to support industry, “particularly focusing on the eight growth-driving sectors and the frontier industries within them”.
The department added: “Where there is appetite from industry and aligned to government’s wider programme of public sector reform, government will explore establishing dedicated Sector Offices to support the industrial strategy growth-driving sectors and co-deliver Sector Plans.
“This will build on successful models like the Office for Life Sciences, bringing together policy and delivery interests and expertise that currently sit across multiple departments, giving businesses an immediate first point of contact to engage, whatever their issue.”
The eight “high growth sectors” prioritised in the industrial strategy are: advanced manufacturing; clean energy industries; creative industries; digital and technologies; financial services; defence; professional and business services, and life sciences.
The Office for Life Sciences – naturally focused on the latter sector – champions research and innovation and the use of technology to transform health and care services. It has 120 civil servants, and is jointly sponsored by the Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. Ministers made changes recently so that it now also reports to business secretary Jonathan Reynolds as part of “more formalised links” with the Department for Business and Trade aimed at supporting the government’s industrial strategy. The government recently appointed Steve Bates, the former chief executive of the BioIndustry Association, as the OLS's new executive chair, and tasked him with "deepening ties" with the sector.
As well as setting out its plans to look into “sector offices”, DBT said it has introduced a cross-government account management initiative, appointing dedicated account managers to lead strategic relationships with key businesses. It said these account managers coordinate across departments to "ensure consistent, streamlined engagement with businesses through regular, unified communication".
Ministers are also required to engage these businesses regularly to "foster deep and meaningful dialogue and address the needs of business", the department added.
DBT said it has also established a “dedicated area to coordinate business engagement and insights, enabling government to build a coherent understanding of business needs that enhances capability and promotes best practice across departments”.
The department said it has also engaged mission leads across government to “instil the importance of engaging business to inform policymaking”. It added that the No.10 Partnership Unit and DBT non-executive directors are “afforded regular opportunity to share their expertise with account managers and senior officials, and a centre of excellence function within the account management initiative facilitates the sharing of best practice”.
DBT also pointed to the creation of the Digital Business Growth Service in June, which it said “will simplify how businesses across the UK find government advice and support, including through a new streamlined digital offer – business.gov.uk”.