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, how much public money has been allocated for the development and maintenance of the AI tools (a) Scout, (b) Connect, and (c) Humphrey; and from which departmental budgets those funds have been drawn.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
One of the functions of the new Government Digital Service is to incubate AI products and scale them into cross government services. As part of this funding for the development of Connect and Humphrey will come from the budget of the Incubator for Artificial Intelligence, which sits within DSIT's overall operating budget.
The level of funding is subject to the department’s settlement at Spending Review. Currently other departments are not charged for use of these tools, though the department will determine an appropriate operating model on finalisation of the Spending Review. Following a handover of the tool, future budgetary decisions for Scout will belong to the Infrastructure and Projects Authority.
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 his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of using procurement to support open source software development in the UK.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The UK has a strong open-source ecosystem, which has helped drive innovation and distribute the benefits of technology widely.
The AI Opportunities Action Plan outlines how the government will maximise the potential for AI, including its support for open-source development. This includes the government's agreement to support open-source solutions when procuring AI models and other software for public sector use where appropriate. As a result, we are working closely with and engaging the open-source community to benefit from open-source innovation through appropriately sourced models and other technical solutions.
The principles of being open and using open source has been part of the Government's Technology Code of Practice for some time, and continues to be one of our core principles.
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, which organisations are responsible for (a) the development and (b) the maintenance of the (i) Scout, (ii) Connect, and (iii) Humphrey AI tools.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Incubator for Artificial Intelligence (i.AI), which is part of the Government Digital Service, developed these tools. i.AI maintains Connect and the Humphrey GovAI toolkit. Scout will be maintained by the Infrastructure and Projects Authority.
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 his Department has made an assessment of the (a) resilience and (b) reliability of cloud services, in the context of its plans to designate cloud services as Critical National Infrastructure.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government process for designating infrastructure as Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) requires an assessment of the sector’s resilience, and its reliability, in performing its essential function to society and the economy. This was assessed prior to the designation of cloud infrastructure as CNI in September 2024.
Cloud computing services have also been subject to the security requirements of the Network & Information Systems (NIS) Regulations since 2018 and are subject to ongoing oversight by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). This will be further strengthened by the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, which will give the ICO additional regulatory powers for the 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, pursuant to the Answer of 17 January 2024 to Question 23744 on UK Research and Innovation: Staff, how many business growth advisors operate in each region.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The funding for IUK Business Growth core advisory activities for 2024-25 is £41.8m, servicing approximately 10,000 innovative businesses a year with light touch Growth, or more intensive High Growth/Scaling support, this data is published as part of Innovate UK’s “Transparency data”.
The Business Growth advisors (Full Time Equivalent) per region is as per the table below, the group marked national work cross-regionally:
Region | Approx. FTE | % split |
National | 44 | 9% |
Wales | 22 | 5% |
Scotland | 16 | 3% |
Northern Ireland | 6 | 1% |
North | 73 | 16% |
Midlands | 44 | 9% |
East | 88 | 19% |
South West | 53 | 11% |
South East | 48 | 10% |
London | 71 | 15% |
Total | 464 |
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, pursuant to the Answer of 17 January 2024 to Question 23744 on UK Research and Innovation: Staff, how much funding Innovate UK has allocated for business growth advisors in the 2024-25 financial year.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The funding for IUK Business Growth core advisory activities for 2024-25 is £41.8m, servicing approximately 10,000 innovative businesses a year with light touch Growth, or more intensive High Growth/Scaling support, this data is published as part of Innovate UK’s “Transparency data”.
The Business Growth advisors (Full Time Equivalent) per region is as per the table below, the group marked national work cross-regionally:
Region | Approx. FTE | % split |
National | 44 | 9% |
Wales | 22 | 5% |
Scotland | 16 | 3% |
Northern Ireland | 6 | 1% |
North | 73 | 16% |
Midlands | 44 | 9% |
East | 88 | 19% |
South West | 53 | 11% |
South East | 48 | 10% |
London | 71 | 15% |
Total | 464 |
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, pursuant to the Answer of 17 January 2024 to Question 23744 on UK Research and Innovation: Staff, whether Innovate UK has made an assessment of the value for money of business growth advisors funded by Innovate UK.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
UKRI continuously evaluates the impact of investments across its portfolio to ensure value for money and effectiveness. Innovate UK Business Growth, which includes the business growth advisors, has been independently evaluated multiple times since its inception in 2015, consistently demonstrating overall benefits. For example, the latest evaluation of the scaleup programme found a return on investment of 10:1. The overall remit, size and scope of the service has continued to evolve to respond to evolving demands and market conditions. We are reviewing all the support Innovate UK offers businesses to ensure it is as effective as possible at driving economic growth.
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 reference to the UK Science and Technology Framework, what steps he is taking to integrate the five critical technologies into the government’s modern industrial strategy.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Invest 2035 Green Paper, published on 14 October 2024, set out eight growth-driving sectors that will drive our Industrial Strategy. The Industrial Strategy, alongside Sector Plans for the growth-driving sectors, will be published in late Spring 2025. It is being designed in partnership with business, devolved governments, regions, and other stakeholders, as well as building on existing evidence gathered under the science and technology framework.
The Government is reviewing the growth-enabling role of technologies including quantum, artificial intelligence, engineering biology, semiconductors and future telecoms across the Industrial Strategy.
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 it remains his policy to invest £2 billion over 10 years in engineering biology.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The government remains committed to supporting the UK Engineering Biology sector. DSIT will set out its spending plans in line with the Spending Review timelines set by HM Treasury, with departmental funding settlements being announced in the Spring
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, pursuant to the Answer of 20 December 2024 to Question 18934 on Government Departments: ICT, which companies were contracted to provide IT services after consideration of spend requests against the Digital Assurance Gateway.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Contracts awarded for the activities in scope for Question 18934 as at the time of providing this response include Microsoft, Convergence/Extreme, Objective, IBM, Dextrous Web/Thoughtworks, Kerv, AWS and IBL.