Car manufacturing in the UK will come under the spotlight next year after Government ministers announced plans to launch an official inquiry. The Trade and Industry Select Committee will consider the range and timing of the inquiry into UK car production after it has finished its current work programme.

Martin O'Neill MP, committee chairman, says: “While we have not had the opportunity to discuss the issue, I feel that the time is right for us to undertake a wide-ranging investigation into the state of the UK automotive sector, to follow up the inquiry we undertook in the previous Parliament.”

He adds: “Given the committee's current commitments, however, we cannot begin work on this issue at the moment. I anticipate that we would announce the scope and timing of the new inquiry early in the New Year”. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders says it will be a routine look at the sector that will give vehicle manufacturers the chance to underline the importance of car manufacturing to the British economy.

An SMMT spokesman stresses the study will not be an investigation along the lines of the committee's in-depth inquiry into new car pricing that took place in 2000.