This statement provides an update on the Government’s support to ceramics and critical chemical producers, two of the foundational sectors underpinning our industrial strategy.
The Government are today announcing the launch of the ceramics industry support scheme of £120 million to support the transition of the ceramics sector to a more cost effective and less carbon intensive means of production. Supporting this transition continues to deliver on our mission to decarbonise the economy, helping businesses to invest and grow across the country.
The ceramics industry has a rich cultural heritage, notably in the Potteries in the Stoke-on-Trent area, and it remains a large source of employment in Staffordshire and neighbouring Derbyshire, as well as in areas across the UK from Devon to Dumfries.
However, in recent years the sector has faced a number of difficulties, including a challenging global trading environment, and the cost of reliance on volatile fossil fuels, which have seen costs increase significantly since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. These challenges have led to a pattern of decline and resulted in the closure of historic sites such as Johnson Tiles, Moorcroft Pottery, the liquidation of Royal Stafford, loss of jobs at Armitage Shanks, and the recent administration at Denby pottery.
This Government are clear that industrial decarbonisation must not be achieved by deindustrialisation, and reducing operating costs for businesses will support a successful transition to more efficient and cost-effective forms of production. However, we recognise the challenges faced by ceramics producers, and that Government support will be necessary to help the sector.
That is why the ceramics industry support scheme is being introduced: £60 million of this funding will support capital investment from ceramics firms into more efficient and decarbonised means of production, including electrification of relevant processes. This will both attract business investment in efficient new technologies, and enhance our energy security by reducing our reliance on volatile fossil fuels. This fund will be delivered on a competitive basis, with successful companies demonstrating corresponding co-investment of their own. The expectation is that the package will support a small number of high capital projects, likely from larger companies, as well as smaller projects from established trading SMEs.
To ensure that all eligible companies are able to effectively take advantage of this support in practice and invest in the future of this industry, the ceramics industry support scheme will include an additional £60 million to support operational costs for firms that make successful capital bids but demonstrably need additional support to manage the transition.
We will continue to engage with the sector and explore both fiscal and non-fiscal policy options that can continue to support and sustain a modern, thriving ceramics sector. This includes ensuring that our trade remedies regime works appropriately to protect the sector from injury as a result of unfair foreign trading practices. I strongly encourage industry to engage the Trade Remedies Authority and share new evidence to make sure we have the right trade protections in place.
I have today laid before the House documents the Government have identified that the House required in the 24 February 2026 Humble Address seeking all papers relating to the creation of the role of special representative for trade and investment in 2001, the appointment of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, and the advice of officials and Ministers on his suitability and due diligence and vetting conducted.
This statement explains the Government’s approach to finding these historic documents, provides an overview of what has been found, explains the approach taken in releasing information and answers the House’s specific questions on due diligence and national security vetting.
It has not been a straightforward task to identify the historic documents requested by the House. Twenty-five years ago, Government Departments were largely operating paper-based record keeping systems. We have had to track down files that might potentially contain relevant information, recall these from storage and search files manually.
An added complication lies in changes to the machinery of Government. In the period under consideration, the Government’s work to support trade and investment was led by British Trade International, headed by chief executive Sir David Wright. BTI reported to a board chaired by the Minister of State for International Trade and Investment, Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean, and was accountable both to the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and to the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.
Secondly, the Government are also announcing today the development of a £350 million critical chemical resilience fund to support our chemicals industry. This fund will be available to the UK’s most strategically important chemical producers who underpin our most critical sectors and essential services.
The UK chemicals sector is crucial for UK manufacturing, with chemicals products embedded in the vast majority of manufactured goods. However, like the ceramics sector, the chemicals sector has also faced significant headwinds in recent years with reduced output and recent plant closures raising concerns about its long-term resilience. This Government recognise the scale and depth of those challenges, and we are standing firm, alongside industry, to provide robust support to ensure the sector has a prosperous future in this country.
We have already acted urgently to support and safeguard vital chemical production and jobs at INEOS in Grangemouth, and are restarting production at Ensus in order to protect supply of CO2.
Today we are taking further action. The fund will seek to address the most acute pressures by offering support to critical chemical companies in key clusters that need help to put themselves on a sustainable footing. This will ensure these companies can continue to supply our essential services, boost the resilience of our supply chains, and protect critical UK sectors like food production, water and healthcare.
This is just a first step, and we will work together with industry to ensure we continue to make the critical inputs our economy requires in the UK. The fund will be developed in collaboration with independent experts and industry representatives, and further details will be communicated in due course.
The Government will continue to work hand-in- hand with industry to ensure broader policy delivers decarbonisation and not deindustrialisation. We are committed to tackling unfair foreign trade practices, and Ministers will urgently convene the chemicals industry to explore potential trade defence action.
The Government are also committed to driving down regulatory costs faced by the industry. We have already cut back the need for UK businesses to buy expensive and unnecessary data, cutting transition costs while maintaining health and environmental protections. We will work with the industry to identify where the UK can go further to reduce regulatory costs and remove duplicative procedures for businesses.
This Government recognise the importance of the chemicals sector, its contribution to society and our economy, and the jobs and communities it supports. The fund supports the delivery of our industrial strategy, which identifies chemicals as a vital foundational sector that underpins the UK’s high-growth industries like defence and advanced manufacturing by producing the materials they all depend on and are essential to many supply chains. Chemicals are also essential to delivering our ambitions in our clean energy mission. Action today will ensure the sector can play its part in strengthening our industrial capability and boosting resilience for the UK’s future.
The Government will continue to work with the sector and experts as the ceramics industry support scheme and critical chemicals resilience fund are being developed, including on eligibility criteria and delivery mechanisms as they are progressed. Further detail will be published in due course, and we are aiming to open both funds to applications later this summer.
The support being announced today is in addition to our support for the chemicals sector through the industrial strategy. In particular, the targeted support to bring down energy costs, through the British industrial competitiveness scheme, will benefit over 10,000 businesses, including many chemical companies, reducing electricity costs by up to £40 per megawatt hour.
This is a long-term industrial intervention designed to address persistent competitiveness challenges facing the chemicals sector. This will help chemical companies remain competitive and resilient through periods of volatility, supporting supply chain security through global supply shocks.
Time and again we have stepped in to support our resilience: from keeping the blast furnaces running at Scunthorpe and restarting production at Ensus to safeguard the UK’s supply of CO2, to this intervention today. This is the difference an active and strategic state makes.
Together, these measures demonstrate our continued commitment to heavy industry, which underpins our economy, industrial strategy growth sectors, and our national resilience.
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A committee of senior officials, the Royal Visits Committee, provided advice to Ministers and the sovereign on inward and outward official overseas visits by members of the royal family. At the time this was chaired by the Cabinet Secretary.
The search focused on files from 1999 to 2001 held by the most relevant Departments—the Department for Business and Trade, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the Ministry of Defence, and Cabinet Office.
Today, The Government have published 11 documents that show how the role was created and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was appointed. These include:
the formal appointment proposal to Ministers;
evidence that Ministers were content with the proposal;
internal communications to all trade staff about the role;
media and press briefing and question and answer materials.
From 1976 to 2001, the Duke of Kent served as vice-chairman of the British Overseas Trade Board and then British Trade International, undertaking more than 60 overseas visits in support of British exports. As he approached retirement from that role in 2001, consideration was given to how best to continue the engagement of the royal family in trade and investment promotion work.
In February 2000, Sir David Wright put a formal appointment proposal to Ministers, explaining that the Duke of Kent intended to withdraw from his role supporting trade promotion overseas and it was Her late Majesty’s wish that the Duke of York should succeed him. He set out a proposed role encompassing two or three trade promotion visits overseas per year, visits to UK regions and receiving prominent overseas trade visitors in the UK.
The documents show that officials and Ministers had been considering expanding the role of the Duke of York for some time prior to the formal proposal. In January 2000, the then Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, agreed that greater use should be made of the then Duke of York.
Media reporting indicates that the Palace announced in December 2000 that the Duke of Kent was stepping down and that the Duke of York would assume his role.
Internal BTI papers illustrate how the proposed role was developed and communicated to staff and to the media, and record that an initial familiarisation programme ran from April 2001, with the role formally announced in October 2001. Documents confirm the role was unpaid, with costs associated with official duties met through standard departmental arrangements and that systems were put in place to oversee the role. Officials established formal processes to assess and approve engagements, taking account of strategic trade and investment priorities, cost, and other Government priorities.
It is a long-standing practice across successive Administrations that when the Government respond to a Humble Address motion they have a responsibility to consider whether it is in the public interest to place information into the public domain. This is done using the principles of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, and in line with the ministerial code and the resolutions on ministerial accountability, passed by both Houses in 1997.
In line with this, we have redacted documents to remove the bare minimum of personal information and information whose release would prejudice international relations. We have consulted the police to ensure that the release of information does not prejudice their investigation. We have also considered carefully the redaction of information relating to royal communications, mindful of the long-standing convention of confidentiality, which is codified under the Freedom of Information Act, in relation to communications with and on behalf of the sovereign. In this exceptional circumstance, the Government are releasing royal communications about the former Duke of York’s appointment as special representative. Communications with the royal household on unrelated topics have been redacted.
I can assure the House that we have proceeded on the basis of the maximum transparency, in accordance with the letter and spirit of the Humble Address.
We have found no evidence that a formal due diligence or vetting process was undertaken. There is also no evidence that this was considered. This is understandable since this new appointment was a continuation of the royal family’s involvement in trade and investment promotion work following the Duke of Kent’s decision to relinquish his duties as vice-chairman of the Overseas Trade Board.
The Government are co-operating fully with Thames Valley Police on their investigation into Andrew Mountbatten- Windsor and possible misconduct in public office.