Steel Industry (Special Measures) Act 2025
| Long title | An act to make provision about powers to secure the continued and safe use of assets of a steel undertaking. |
|---|---|
| Citation | 2025 c. 13 |
| Introduced by | Jonathan Reynolds, Secretary of State for Business and Trade (Commons) Baroness Jones of Whitchurch, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Legislation (Lords) |
| Territorial extent | England and Wales |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 12 April 2025 |
| Commencement | 12 April 2025 |
Status: Current legislation | |
| History of passage through Parliament | |
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
| Text of the Steel Industry (Special Measures) Act 2025 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk. | |
The Steel Industry (Special Measures) Act 2025 (c. 13) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It gives the Secretary of State for Business and Trade the power to direct the operations of steel manufacturers in order to prevent them ceasing to use certain assets, when it is in the public interest for the use of those assets to continue.
The act was a direct response to the refusal of Jingye Group, owner of British Steel, to continue to purchase the raw materials necessary for the operation of the two blast furnaces at Scunthorpe Steelworks, after it announced it was considering closing the facility.
It is very difficult to shut down blast furnaces without rendering them permanently unusable, and allowing the Scunthorpe blast furnaces—the only two remaining in the country—to run out of raw materials would have seen the end of primary steel production in the United Kingdom. The further threat of full closure of the plant puts at least 2,700 jobs at risk. The act allows the Secretary of State to keep it running while a long-term solution, possibly nationalisation, is decided.
The bill was passed and received royal assent in a single day on 12 April 2025, after Parliament was recalled from Easter break and convened in a rare Saturday sitting.