Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 25 November 2022 to Question 93537 on Research: Investment, at what geographic level the further detailed data on regional spend will be aggregated; when he plans to publish this data; and what steps he is taking to assess the progress of policies to level up science investment.
Answered by George Freeman
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is an independent body. I will encourage them to publish in due course as much regional detail on where R&D expenditure is taking place as they can, at least for the nine English regions as well as for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions he has had with the (a) Office for National Statistics and (b) Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities on gathering data to measure levelling up of science investment.
Answered by George Freeman
Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy officials are working closely with the Office for National Statistics, the Government Office for Science and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to improve the granularity of R&D data, in particular to publish data for the first time in early 2023 on the location of performed R&D funded by the government, in support of the Levelling Up White Paper R&D mission.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the Written Statement of 21 November 2022, HCWS 376 on Programmes: Announcement of £484 million immediate investment for the UK R&D and fusion sectors, from which budget that funding will be drawn; and whether he expects that funding would be impacted by the UK's potential future participation in Horizon Europe.
Answered by George Freeman
The Government’s preference remains association to Horizon Europe and while we push for association, we must also invest in the UK’s world leading R&D sector.
At the 2021 Spending Review, the Government committed to funding association to EU R&D programmes, including Horizon Europe and that if the UK is unable to associate to Horizon Europe, the funding allocated to association will go to UK government R&D programmes.
As a result of the EU’s delays, the Government are making an immediate investment from the EU programme funding allocation to support the UK R&D sector as we continue to pursue association.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the Written Statement of 21 November 2022, HCWS 376 on Programmes: Announcement of £484 million immediate investment for the UK R&D and fusion sectors, whether that funding represents an alternative to the UK's future participation in Horizon Europe.
Answered by George Freeman
The Government’s preference remains association to Horizon Europe and while we push for association, we must also invest in the UK’s world leading R&D sector.
At the 2021 Spending Review, the Government committed to funding association to EU R&D programmes, including Horizon Europe and that if the UK is unable to associate to Horizon Europe, the funding allocated to association will go to UK government R&D programmes.
As a result of the EU’s delays, the Government are making an immediate investment from the EU programme funding allocation to support the UK R&D sector as we continue to pursue association.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the ONS data on Business Gross domestic expenditure on research and development, published 22 November 2022, for what reason regional data on spend is no longer available; and whether he plans to ask the ONS to help provide that information.
Answered by George Freeman
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is an independent body, and this update is part of a wider programme of work to improve economic statistics and data capture. The ONS published estimates of country and regional breakdown of expenditure on R&D in the UK by sector of performance for 2018, 2019 and 2020 in table 4 of their Gross Expenditure on R&D release on 22 November 2022, with business enterprise R&D shown separately and with English regions aggregated into three groups.
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is in contact with the ONS and they intend to publish further detailed data on regional spend in due course.