On 1 August 2016, the House of Commons’ Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee – since renamed the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Select Committee – opened its inquiry into the Government’s forthcoming industrial strategy.

The Committee’s inquiry was to consider what the Government means by industrial strategy and questions how interventionist in the free market it should be, such as whether it should prevent foreign takeover of UK companies.

Priorities for the private sector, in terms of what businesses want from a revamped industrial strategy, the pros and cons of a sectorial approach and possible geographical emphasis were also explored.

The inquiry also wanted to look at the industrial strategies of previous governments and of other countries to see if there are any lessons to be learnt.

On Tuesday 8 November 2016, CIPD’s Head of Public Policy, Ben Willmott, was invited to give oral evidence to the committee. Read a transcript of that session.