Lord Younger will be responsible for all of the Department for Business Innovation and Skills business in the House of Lords, in particular steering the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill through its final stages in the Lords. He will also have responsibility for the Intellectual Property portfolio. Lord Younger was previously a Government Whip in the House of Lords.

 Business Minister Lord Younger said:

 "I am delighted to have been asked by the Prime Minister to do this important job; the business department is central to the Government's drive for balanced and sustainable growth.

 "I look forward to making a real contribution to supporting business to generate new private sector employment and boost our international competiveness."

 Prior to entering the House of Lords Lord Younger had a 25 year career in the human resources industry and financial services.

Notes Editors:

1. A Full list of Lord Younger's Ministerial responsibilities will be published shortly.

2. The government's economic policy objective is to achieve 'strong, sustainable and balanced growth that is more evenly shared across the country and between industries'. It set four ambitions in the 'Plan for Growth' (PDF 1.7MB), published at Budget 2011:

  • To create the most competitive tax system in the G20
  • To make the UK the best place in Europe to start, finance and grow a business
  • To encourage investment and exports as a route to a more balanced economy
  • To create a more educated workforce that is the most flexible in Europe.

Work is underway across government to achieve these ambitions, including progress on more than 250 measures as part of the Growth Review. Developing an Industrial Strategy gives new impetus to this work by providing businesses, investors and the public with more clarity about the long-term direction in which the government wants the economy to travel.

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