For six months I was privileged to serve as the Secretary of State for Business,
Energy and Industrial Strategy.

When I was appointed at the end of July last year, delivering Brexit was the urgent priority, but setting out a clear mission and objectives for BEIS was at the top of my agenda.  With my Ministerial team we agreed our overall mission to build a stronger, greener United Kingdom, and to deliver that, there would be
three key priorities:

• first, that the UK will lead the world in tackling global climate change;

• second, that we will solve the Grand Challenges facing our society;

• and third, that we will quite simply make the UK the best place in the world to work and to grow a business.  

BEIS is an incredibly wide ranging department, responsible for policy areas from climate change to employment law, from energy security to corporate governance, and from innovation to space policy, and many others.  We were at the forefront of Brexit readiness preparations, working flat out in the run up to last October to get businesses ready to leave the EU if necessary without an agreed deal.

I am particularly proud of the work we did on setting the direction to Net Zero by 2050, with plans for decarbonising every part of our economy due to be launched in the next few months in the run up to COP 26 in Glasgow.   I was also proud to announce Jack’s Law, introducing a new right to paid parental bereavement leave, as a part of the comprehensive employment law changes we will set out shortly in the employment bill.

The world will be watching with great interest the UK’s direction of travel and our successes outside the EU - integral to this will be the huge potential for UK science and innovation to create a green tech sector to rival the size and capacity of today’s UK financial services sector.  With 450,000 green collar jobs already, this could become 2 million by 2030, and form a core element of our levelling up agenda, with superb jobs and growth prospects in the North of England, in Wales and in Scotland where we can lead the world in decarbonising industry.