British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme: consultation on scheme eligibility and approach
- From:
-
- Department for Business and Trade
- Department for Business and Trade
- Published:
- 24 November 2025
- Last updated:
-
31- 30
JulySeptember 2026 - 30
Applies to England, Scotland and Wales
Read the full outcome
Government response to British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme: consultation on scheme eligibility and approach
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Annex A: Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) and Harmonised System (HS) codes eligible for BICS
MS Excel Spreadsheet, 87.3 KB
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Detail of outcome
This consultation focused on the proposed approach to, and eligibility for, the new British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme (BICS).
The consultation received over 288 responses, including from:
- business representative organisations
- trade associations
- energy suppliers
Respondents were broadly supportive of the scheme and agreed it will have a positive impact, highlighting its potential benefits to competitiveness, investment and growth.
This government response sets out the approach to and eligibility for the scheme, informed by responses to the consultation.
Original consultation
Summary
We are seeking views on the proposed approach to the new British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme (BICS) and how eligible businesses should be selected.
This consultation was held on another website.
This consultation ran from
to
Consultation description
The British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme (BICS) scheme aims to reduce electricity costs. This is for manufacturing frontier industries within the Industrial Strategy’s growth sectors – the Industrial Strategy 8 (IS-8), and manufacturing foundational industries which provide key inputs to the frontier industries, who meet a certain threshold of electricity intensity.
Eligible businesses are to be exempt from paying the indirect costs of the Renewables Obligation, Feed-in Tariffs and the Capacity Market.
This consultation seeks views on the scheme’s proposed approach and how businesses eligible for the scheme should be selected. We are seeking views from all stakeholders with an interest in the proposed scheme.
The list of manufacturing foundational industry codes in Table 3 of Annex A was updated at 3:30pm on 24 November 2025.
Documents
Annex B: indicative list of HS6 codes
ODS, 40 KB
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Updates to this page
-
Link added to the final list of Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) and Harmonised System (HS) codes that are eligible for BICS.
-
‘Annex A: Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) and Harmonised System (HS) codes eligible for BICS’ updated to include the publication date and version number.
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'Annex A: Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) and Harmonised System (HS) codes eligible for BICS' attachment updated with 4 additional SIC codes and 9 HS codes. This is the final list of eligible activities which will be reflected in the implementing legislation, and the government does not intend to make any further changes to the SIC and HS code lists for 2027.
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'Government response to British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme: consultation on scheme eligibility and approach' and 'Annex A: Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) and Harmonised System (HS) codes' added to page.
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The list of manufacturing foundational industry codes in Table 3 of 'Annex A: Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes for manufacturing frontier and manufacturing foundational industries' updated.
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First published.
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Update history
2026-09-30 16:36
Link added to the final list of Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) and Harmonised System (HS) codes that are eligible for BICS.
2026-07-31 15:46
‘Annex A: Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) and Harmonised System (HS) codes eligible for BICS’ updated to include the publication date and version number.
2026-07-08 12:00
‘Annex A: Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) and Harmonised System (HS) codes eligible for BICS’ attachment updated with 4 additional SIC codes and 9 HS codes. This is the final list of eligible activities which will be reflected in the implementing legislation, and the government does not intend to make any further changes to the SIC and HS code lists for 2027.
2026-04-16 09:00
‘Government response to British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme: consultation on scheme eligibility and approach’ and ‘Annex A: Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) and Harmonised System (HS) codes’ added to page.
2025-11-24 15:46
The list of manufacturing foundational industry codes in Table 3 of ‘Annex A: Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes for manufacturing frontier and manufacturing foundational industries’ updated.
2025-11-24 09:30
First published.