Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the correspondence to the Chair of the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee from the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State of 10 April 2025, for what reason the projected £45 billion in annual savings from the digitalisation of public services was not included in the Spending Review 2025, published on 11 June 2025.
Answered by Darren Jones - Minister for Intergovernmental Relations
The figure of £45 billion in annual savings and productivity gains, published in ‘A blueprint for modern digital government’, represents a long-term estimate of the potential benefits for the digital transformation of the public sector. Spending Review 2025 sets out plans for a step change in investment in digital and artificial intelligence (AI) across public services.
Over the Spending Review period, the government will build strong digital and technology foundations, tackle urgent cybersecurity and technical resilience risks, modernise public service delivery, and drive a major overhaul in government productivity and efficiency. All departments will deliver at least 5% savings and efficiencies by 2028‑29. The Office for Value for Money has worked closely with departments to agree bespoke and stretching technical efficiency targets, underpinned by credible delivery plans.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has made an assessment of the potential implications for her polices of recent trends in levels of capital provision by US venture capital firms in (a) UK and (b) other markets.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Venture capital (VC) investment from around the world is important to the UK economy, and US investors continue to play a significant role. In Q1 2025, UK innovation businesses raised over £3bn – this is an 8% increase on the same period last year and the highest Q1 total since 2022. The UK ranks third globally for VC investment and has raised more than France, Germany, and Spain combined so far this year.
The Government is taking action to continue attracting international VC investment, including from the US, through the investor relationship work of the Office for Investment and by partnering with industry on international capital roadshows. We are also reviewing how to accelerate the growth of the UK’s domestic VC ecosystem through the public finance institution landscape review.
In addition, the Government recognises the value in growing the UK’s domestic VC investment market and it is taking steps to support this, including through the British Growth Partnership (BGP). This is a commercially driven investment vehicle designed to attract UK pension fund and other institutional capital into venture capital funds and innovative businesses. Last September, the Chancellor also announced an extension of the UK’s generous venture capital tax reliefs, the Enterprise Investment Scheme and the Venture Capital Trust scheme which - alongside the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme - offer generous tax reliefs in return for investing in UK business.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has made a recent assessment of the potential merits of ending the entitlement of football clubs to claim research and development tax credits.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Government recognises the importance of Research and Development (R&D) in driving innovation and the benefits it can bring for society, where the R&D tax reliefs play a vital role in the Government’s mission to boost economic growth.
All sectors are able to claim R&D relief on projects that meet the definition of qualifying R&D set out in DSIT Guidelines. R&D claims from all sectors are checked and where risks are identified HMRC use a range of compliance approaches and powers to address them.
There are currently no plans to exclude certain sectors from claiming R&D relief.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Autumn Budget 2024, published on 30 October 2024, and his Department's press release entitled Pat McFadden vows to make the state more like a start up as he deploys reform teams across country, published on 9 December 2024, which Department’s budget allocation the £100m Innovation Fund will be drawn from.
Answered by Darren Jones - Minister for Intergovernmental Relations
I refer the hon Friend to the answer given to Question UIN 11936 on 8 November 2024.
The Public Sector Reform and Innovation Fund allocates £165 million to a range of projects in 2025-26, including support for foster care, delivering apprenticeships and planning reforms.
Partnering with Mayors and local leaders, the Autumn Budget 2024 allocated a further £100 million over the next three years to public service reform with a focus on experimentation and learning. This will complement and inform ongoing reform programmes being delivered by departments. The Government will announce more details on this in due course.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the answer of 4 November 2024 to Question 11881 on Research Finance, if her Department will publish a tabular summary of Capital DEL allocated in the Budget to research and development by Department for 2024-25.
Answered by Darren Jones - Minister for Intergovernmental Relations
The departmental research and development (R&D) allocations for 2024-25 are set out in the table below. The numbers represent departmental plans as of Autumn Budget 2024, which reflect underspends identified through the Public Spending Audit 2024-25, including as a result of lower Horizon association costs than previously budgeted for.
In 2025-26, the government has allocated £20.4 billion for investment in R&D – more than ever before which reflects its focus on growth. This includes the protection of £6.1 billion for core research.
Department | 24-25 R&D (£m) |
DSIT | £ 12,500m* |
DHSC | £ 2,000m* |
MOD | £ 1,800m* |
DESNZ | £ 1,000m* |
DEFRA | £ 400m* |
SIA | £ 400m* |
FCDO | £ 500m* |
DBT | £ 300m* |
DfT | £ 300m* |
DCMS | £ 50m** |
DfE | £ 50m** |
HO | £ 30m** |
DWP | £ 40m** |
MHCLG | £ <10m |
FSA | £ <10m |
MOJ | £ <10m |
HMRC | £ <10m |
HMT | £ <10m |
TOTAL | £ 19,524m |
*rounded to nearest £100m
**rounded to nearest £10m
Individual departments have been rounded to reflect the possibility that allocations can change as a result of in-year inter-department budget transfers.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 8 November 2024 to Question 12054 on Department for Business and Trade: Finance, whether the figures referenced are included in the £20.4 billion mentioned on page 65 of the Autumn Budget 2024, published on 30 October.
Answered by Tulip Siddiq
The £20.4bn referenced on page 65 of the Budget document refers to all departmental research and development budgets for 2025/2026.
This includes a research and development allocation for the Department for Business and Trade for 2025/2026 of £329m. This includes part of the over £2bn for the automotive sector and £975m for the aerospace sector announced over the next 5 years to 2029/2030 at Budget. The £520m announced for life sciences is not included in the overall figure as it is not research and development.
The overall allocations for the automotive and aerospace sectors in the Budget are multi-year commitments, with detail to be agreed through the second phase of the Spending Review. This multi-year allocation includes R&D and Capital funding.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to paragraph 3.19 of Autumn Budget 2024, HC 295, whether the funding for growth-driving sectors will be allocated to the Department for Business and Trade.
Answered by Tulip Siddiq
This government is committed to delivering a modern Industrial Strategy. The Budget took a first step towards supporting our growth driving sectors, by providing funding in 2025-26 for life sciences manufacturing, allocated to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, and to automotive and aerospace manufacturing, allocated to the Department for Business and Trade.
The Budget also confirmed long-term funding for these sectors - £975m for aerospace, over £2bn for automotive, and up to £520m for life sciences supporting the development of new technology, further details of this funding will be set out through the Spending Review and publication of the full Industrial Strategy in Spring 2025.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to paragraph 3.19 of the Autumn Budget 2024, HC 295, published on 30 October 2024, if she will publish an allocation breakdown of the £20.4 billion spending on research and development for 2025-26.
Answered by Darren Jones - Minister for Intergovernmental Relations
To fully harness the potential of the UK's excellent science base and to foster a dynamic investment economy, the Budget protects record levels of government research and development (R&D) investment with £20.4 billion allocated in 2025-26. This is allocated as per the table below.
Department | 25-26 R&D* |
DSIT | £13,936m |
DHSC | £2,036m |
MOD | £1,685m |
DESNZ | £730m |
DEFRA | £512m |
SIA | £439m |
FCDO | £335m |
DBT | £329m |
DfT | £154m |
DCMS | £63m |
DfE | £50m |
HO | £45m |
DWP | £39m |
MHCLG | £9m |
FSA | £8m |
MOJ | £3m |
HMRC | £2m |
HMT | £1m |
TOTAL | £20,376m |
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to Autumn Budget 2024, HC 295, published on 30 October 2024, if her Department will publish a tabular summary of Capital DEL allocated in the Budget to research and development by Department.
Answered by Darren Jones - Minister for Intergovernmental Relations
To fully harness the potential of the UK's excellent science base and to foster a dynamic investment economy, the Budget protects record levels of government research and development (R&D) investment with £20.4 billion allocated in 2025-26. This is allocated as per the table below.
Department | 25-26 R&D* |
DSIT | £13,936m |
DHSC | £2,036m |
MOD | £1,685m |
DESNZ | £730m |
DEFRA | £512m |
SIA | £439m |
FCDO | £335m |
DBT | £329m |
DfT | £154m |
DCMS | £63m |
DfE | £50m |
HO | £45m |
DWP | £39m |
MHCLG | £9m |
FSA | £8m |
MOJ | £3m |
HMRC | £2m |
HMT | £1m |
TOTAL | £20,376m |
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to help increase the UK’s global competitiveness in green finance.
Answered by Bim Afolami
The Government has taken world-leading action to green the financial system, and we remain fully committed to that work. The action we have taken is part of the reason that London has been consistently ranked as the world’s top financial centre in the Global Green Finance Index.
We were the first major country to publish a Green Finance Strategy in 2019 and in March 2023 we published an updated Green Finance Strategy. It set out our ambitious work on green finance, providing further clarity on key policy areas such as our ambition to become a Net Zero Aligned Financial Centre, and next steps under our Sustainability Disclosure Requirements framework, including transition plan disclosures, and next steps on the UK Green Taxonomy. In addition, as part of the 2024 Spring Budget, the Government has announced that it will proceed with developing a regulatory regime for ESG ratings providers, aiming to improve transparency and promote good conduct.