Public Accounts Committee
22 June 2026
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Public Accounts Committee House of Commons
00:02 - 01:51
Speaker 1
Order, order everybody. Welcome to the Public Accounts Committee on Monday the 22nd of June 2026. UK steel industry has been placed under significant pressure in recent years. Rising energy prices, decarbonisation, uncertainty over trade and tariffs from the US and EU, as well as increased global competition have all contributed to this current situation. British Steel employed 4,052 permanent staff as at the 31st of January this year and has the last two remaining operational blast furnaces in the UK located at Scunthorpe.
In April 2025, following concerns that these blast furnaces would be closed, therefore putting UK industries and jobs at risk, the government passed emergency legislation in May to prevent the closure of these furnaces. In March this year, the government also published its steel strategy. The key aims of the strategy to ensure that the viability of UK steel industry to move towards green steel production and to attract new investment in the sector. So today we are fortunate to have with us a panel of witnesses with huge wealth of knowledge and experience working in the industry ahead of the questioning of our main government officials in the second session this afternoon. We'll be asking our witnesses for their thoughts on the government's intervention, its impact on steelworkers, the local community in Scunthorpe, as well as the government's new steel strategy amongst other key issues.
So we've got a very good panel of witnesses in front of us today. So what I'd like to do, perhaps start with you Charlotte, ask every one of you to introduce yourself, who you are and what union you represent would be really helpful. Of course we all know that Councillor Rob is a councillor, so you're not in the same camp. But please introduce yourself first, Charlotte, please.
01:51 - 02:11
Speaker 9
Thank you and thank you very much for having me. I'm Charlotte Brumpton-Childs. I am the National Secretary for the GMB Union looking after the private sector. I'm also a former steelworker at the Scunthorpe plant and just to declare an interest, I sit on the government's Steel Council that was part of putting together the steel strategy that was launched a couple of weeks ago.
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