Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Industry and Economic
Security (): Today the Department for
Business and Trade convened the first meeting of the Critical
Imports Council. This forum brings together experts from
industry, academia and government to help ensure the resilience
of those critical supply chains essential to the UK's economic
prosperity, national security and essential services. This meets
the commitment made in the UK's Critical Imports and Supply
Chains Strategy, published in January this year.
The Council is central to delivering one of the Strategy's
priorities, forging and strengthening the relationships with
business and academia that will help the UK adapt and thrive in
an evolving global economy. This is part of our plan to improve
Britain's long-term economic security and opportunity.
The Council, chaired by the Minister for Industry and Economic
Security, includes representatives from the UK's cutting-edge
manufacturing, technology, logistics and transportation
industries, and the world-leading supply chain expertise in our
universities. The Council is responsible for:
- providing a forum for industry to identify barriers and other
issues preventing the reliable and efficient importation of
critical goods into the UK;
- enabling cross-sectoral collaboration and best practice
sharing on approaches to build supply chain resilience and test
potential policy interventions; and
- where appropriate, enabling joint government / industry
development of interventions and allowing the sharing and
discussion of evidence and insights
This first Council meeting builds on the considerable work done
by the previous Minister and officials in developing the Critical
Imports and Supply Chains Strategy and subsequent implementation.
The link to the Strategy can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-critical-imports-and-supply-chains-strategy(opens
in a new tab)
We have published the membership of the Council on Gov.uk at the
following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-ramps-up-work-to-secure-supplies-of-medicines-and-smartphone-chips(opens
in a new tab).
