Description
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) is a department of His Majesty's Government. The department was formed during a machinery of government change on 14 July 2016, following Theresa May's appointment as Prime Minister, through a merger between the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC).
National Security and Investment Act 2021
In August 2022, BEIS blocked the sale of Pulsic Limited in Bristol to a company owned by the China's National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund. Pulsic is a chip design software company which makes tools to design and develop the circuit layouts for chips.
In November 2022, BEIS ordered Nexperia to sell at least 86 percent of Newport Wafer Fab, the largest chipmaking facility in the UK, which it had acquired in July 2021. Nexperia itself had been taken over by a Chinese company named Wingtech Technology in 2018.
Responsibilities
The department has responsibility for:
- business
- industrial strategy
- science, research and innovation
- deregulation
- energy and clean growth
- climate change
While some functions of the former Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, in respect of higher and further education policy, apprenticeships and skills, were transferred to the Department for Education, in a statement May explained:
The Department for Energy and Climate Change and the remaining functions of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills have been merged to form a new Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, bringing together responsibility for business, industrial strategy, and science and innovation with energy and climate change policy. The new department will be responsible for helping to ensure that the economy grows strongly in all parts of the country, based on a robust industrial strategy. It will ensure that the UK has energy supplies that are reliable, affordable and clean; and it will make the most of the economic opportunities of new technologies, and support the UK’s global competitiveness more effectively.
Research and innovation partnerships in low and middle-income countries
BEIS spends part of the overseas aid budget on research and innovation through two major initiatives: The Newton Fund and the Global Challenges Research Fund, or GCRF. Both funds aim to leverage the UK’s world-class research and innovation capacity to pioneer new ways to support economic development, social welfare and long-term sustainable and equitable growth in low and middle-income countries. The Newton Fund builds research and innovation partnerships with partner countries to support their economic development and social welfare, and to develop their research and innovation capacity for long-term sustainable growth. The fund is delivered through 7 UK delivery partners.
