Evidence hearing with Secretary of State Rt Hon Jonathan Reynolds
On Tuesday 20 October the Business, Innovation, Science and Trade Committee will hold its first evidence hearing with Secretary of State Rt Hon Jonathan Reynolds, who is returning to the role at the head of a department with an expanded remit, now taking in science and innovation.
Meeting details
In the lead up to the session the Committee has launched a major new inquiry on AI safety, a new inquiry on entrepreneurship in the UK, and is publishing a series of Government responses that will form part of questioning to the Secretary of State, including around the effectiveness of the UK's Competition and Markets Authority and Ofcom's regulation of Royal Mail.
Other areas of priority questioning for the Secretary of State and interim Permanent Secretary Amanda Brooks are likely to include:
- The department’s demands for the Budget 2026
- Small business, the high cost of doing business, and the slow death of our high streets
- Tariffs on Chinese EVs and the prospects of a deeper UK-EU trade deal
- The government’s strategy for AI safety laws
- Buying British and how to square the circle with the EU’s Industrial Accelerator Act and Made in Europe agenda
- The ongoing failures in Royal Mail services
- Justice for the Post Office Horizon victims
- Delivering on the promises of devolution and "growth in every postcode"
- What does "reindustrialisation" really mean and how is being delivered?
- Outlook for the UK steel strategy and impact of steel tarfifs
- When will UK workers start to see and feel the benefits of the Employment Rights Act?