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Liam Booth-Smith (Localis), Penny Mordaunt MP, Minister of State for Department for Work and Pensions and Professor Francis Davis (copyright Localis/Twitter) on 11 July 2017.

A joint report by Professor Francis Davis and Liam Booth-Smith, Chief Executive of Localis, was launched on 11 July 2017 by the Department for Work and Pensions. The report argues for a strategic government focus in the "disability sector" in the new industrial strategy.

Arguing for Metro Mayor's of Combined Authorities to play their part, the report proposes new tax reliefs, a fresh approach to leadership development and a special unit with the national Office for Life Sciences so that the existing £1 billion assistive technology sector for disabled people in the UK is not going to be submerged within the government's concern for the pharmaceutical sector.

Penny Mordaunt MP, Minister of State for Department for Work and Pensions, welcomed the report’s recommendations, saying at the launch of the report that “the industrial strategy needs the practicality and the focus of sector deals, and if it doesn’t have one for disability it will be incomplete.”