Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with which countries does the UK operate international science partnership funds; and how much and what proportion of the funding for the partnership with Japan is from (a) public and (b) private sources and (i) domestic and (ii) foreign contributors.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The International Science Partnership Fund currently operates in:
United States of America, Japan, Canada, India, South Korea, Switzerland, Australia, Germany, Israel, Taiwan, China, Ireland, France, Netherlands, New Zealand, Denmark, and Latvia (non-ODA)
South Africa, Kenya, Malaysia, Thailand, Brazil, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Philippines, Vietnam, Turkey, and Ghana (ODA)
Information on spend in Japan is not provided under the exemptions in the Ministerial Code that cover information that is not currently held and where there would be a disproportionate cost to gaining it.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what discussions she has had with science and discovery centres on their financial resilience since the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government recognises the important role these centres play in engaging the public with science and inspiring young people. As set out in the answer of 29 October 2025 to Question 84033, Minister Vallance has followed up with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to explore a coordinated approach to supporting these centres. I refer my honourable friend to that answer for further detail.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what discussions his Department has had with Innovate UK on (a) when it plans to open the next Biomedical Catalyst grant awards and (b) steps being taken to ensure a wide range of biomedical businesses can apply for grants via that programme.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Biomedical Catalyst has a suite of competitions designed to support small and medium sized businesses to progress projects at different stages of development.
There is currently one grant opportunity open - Innovate UK Biomedical Catalyst Accelerator – Hospital to Community - which closes on the 31st of October. The next round of industry-led R&D funding is under preparation and expected to be launched early Nov and open for 4 weeks.
Innovate UK promotes R&D funding opportunities through social media and other communication channels. Biomedical Catalyst also utilises Business Connect services to engage with UK businesses by offering bespoke, sustained 1:1 support as well as providing advice and access to resources that can help promote Biomedical Catalyst, and support with applications and funding.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the resilience of Government Digital Services to outages.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
In the 2025 State of Digital Government review, cyber security and digital resilience risks were identified as critically high across the public sector, and we are taking immediate action to make Government services more secure, resilient and reliable.
Government has a robust set of policies that ensure there are well-defined and tested incident management processes in place, providing continuity of essential functions in the event of system or service failure.
Furthermore, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) will publish the Government Cyber Action Plan this Winter, which sets out a clear approach for Government and the public sector to manage cyber security and resilience incidents.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of the impact of the AWS outage on 20 October 2025 on Government Digital Services.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) is leading Government’s response to the AWS outage that took place on Monday 20 October 2025. DSIT continues to work across government and with businesses to understand the full impacts of the outage. All AWS services were restored on Monday evening and DSIT is in contact with AWS to understand how such events can be mitigated in the future.
The outage affected a number of suppliers and departments, and it will take some time to fully understand the scale of the impact. DSIT will be gathering a full picture of the impact on government in the coming weeks.
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology will publish the Government Cyber Action Plan this Winter, which will set out a clear approach for the Government and the Wider Public Sector to manage cyber security and resilience incidents.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what proportion of Government cloud services are hosted on (a) AWS, (b) Google and (c) Microsoft infrastructure.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The State of Digital Government report estimates up to 60% of the government estate is currently hosted on cloud platforms, mostly using AWS, Microsoft and Google. More granular data on the split between AWS, Google and Microsoft infrastructure is not currently held. However, the Government Digital Service in DSIT is developing a cloud consumption dashboard to provide government with greater visibility of cloud usage and costs across the public sector.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, when her Department plans to publish the Government Digital and AI Roadmap.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Roadmap for a Modern Digital Government will be published this autumn.
The roadmap will outline how the Blueprint for a Modern Digital Government, launched in January 2025, will be delivered, building a modern digital government that makes life easier, drives growth and delivers smarter, more efficient public services.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to provide funding for research into the (a) prevention and (b) treatment of arthritis and musculoskeletal disease in UK universities.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government does not generally ringfence funding for particular areas of research but has funded a significant amount of applicant-led funding on arthritis and musculoskeletal disease.
In 2024, UKRI’s Medical Research Council (MRC) committed over £17 million to research on these topics, including over £4 million for the University of Oxford, within UKRI’s £28.5 million Functional Genomics Initiative, to establish a research cluster focused on the use of functional genomics techniques to improve musculoskeletal health and disease.
UKRI delivers a substantial portfolio of research with wider relevance, including in immunology and pain relief, and plays a key role in funding underpinning discovery research.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether he science and discovery centres fall within the remit of his Department.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The UK’s Science and Discovery Centres have an important role in engaging the public, with science and technology and in inspiring young people, particularly those from underrepresented groups, to consider studying STEM subjects and related careers.
However, while some centres do carry out research in addition to their informal science learning activities their primary role is as visitor centres focussed on the role of science in the UK’s culture. While the department and partners such as UKRI have provided support for particular programmes managed by science centres, as institutions they do not fall within DSIT’s remit.
DSIT is currently planning to engage with DCMS to discuss how government’s relationship with these important institutions can best be supported going forward.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment she has made of the impact of science and discovery centres' on (a) science communication, (b) public engagement and (c) the level of interest in STEM skills amongst school students; and what assessment she has made of trends in the level of financial resilience of these centres since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answered by Feryal Clark
The Government has not conducted an assessment of interest in science and discovery centres among school students. The financial sustainability of Science and Discovery Centres was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, as entrance fees are a significant income source. Sector surveys by the Association for Science and Discovery Centres, conducted in Spring 2024 and 2025, show that visitor numbers have since increased, with over 5.2 million last year—including school children, families and communities. Science and Discovery Centres engaged 37% of UK schools and offered programmes such as 'Thinking Doing Talking Science' to improve attainment, particularly among disadvantaged pupils.