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 Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether her Department has issued guidance to financial institutions on its investment decisions in the context of the International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, published in July 2024.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
There is guidance on gov.uk setting out the clear risks related to economic and financial activities in the settlements, and we do not encourage or offer support to such activity.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to Action 10 on page 22 of the Life Sciences Sector Plan, published on 16 July 2025, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that musculoskeletal conditions are included in plans to increase investment in health research and development focused on primary and secondary prevention and multiple long-term conditions.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department funds research on health and social care through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health including a variety of musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions such as arthritis, including osteo, rheumatoid, psoriatic, juvenile arthritis, osteoporosis, and joint and back pain. This includes research on primary and secondary prevention of MSK and the interaction and co-concurrence of MSK with other long-term conditions. Current investments across the NIHR include:
- the UK Musculoskeletal Translational Research Collaboration, which works across all sectors of the health and care system to collate expertise, resources, and to develop novel innovations to benefit those experiencing MSK related conditions, with further information available at the following link:
https://www.nihr.ac.uk/about-us/what-we-do/infrastructure/translational-research-collaborations/musculosceletal;
- the Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, which is evaluating new devices and surgical interventions, using large datasets to find new ways to identify and treat MSK conditions and testing new drug delivery systems to help treat MSK conditions, with further information available at the following link:
https://oxfordbrc.nihr.ac.uk/research-themes/musculoskeletal/; and
- a major research grant exploring whether long-term conditions such as arthritis can be predicted by a person’s level of inflammation. Predicting these conditions will enable better intervention, prevention, and treatment, with further information available at the following link:
https://fundingawards.nihr.ac.uk/award/NIHR205461.
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 Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to (a) comply with the ICJ Advisory Opinion entitled Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, published on 19 July 2024 and (b) prevent (i) trade and (ii) investment relations that help to maintain Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK is fully committed to international law and respects the independence of the International Court of Justice. We continue to consider the Court's Advisory Opinion carefully, with the seriousness and rigour it deserves. The UK does not recognise the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including Israeli settlements, as part of Israel. Goods imported from the settlements are therefore not entitled to benefit from trade preferences under the UK-Israel Trade and Partnership Agreement. The UK also supports accurate labelling of settlement goods, so as not to mislead the consumer.
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 17 July 2025 to Question 67326 on Taxation, what reforms to the tax system are being considered to support (a) job creation and (b) economic participation in regions with persistently lower employment levels.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The OBR will produce a new forecast for the annual Budget, and the Chancellor will make decisions in the round based on that forecast.
The Government is focused on unleashing the potential of people across all nations and regions of the UK and growing the economy – a key priority in the Plan for Change.
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 of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what comparative assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the adult oral health survey (a) before and (b) after the decision to no longer include the examination of patients in the survey.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There has been no comparative assessment of the effectiveness of the adult oral health survey (AOHS) before and after the changes in data collection. This decision occurred for the 2021 survey only, to adapt to restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, where face to face examinations were not feasible. The most recent 2023 AOHS survey has reintroduced a clinical examination of participants.
An online and paper survey without an oral examination was undertaken in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The results from this survey, published in January 2024, are therefore not comparable to the rest of the survey series. The most recent AOHS, provisionally scheduled to be published on 9 December, is a comprehensive survey that will include results of an oral examination of consenting participants. The survey is similar in content to the one that was conducted in 2009 and published at the time by NHS Digital.
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 Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether his Department plans to develop a national strategy to secure aluminium as a critical raw material for the economy.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Building on the UK Critical Minerals Intelligence Centre’s updated 2024 criticality assessment in which aluminium was designated a critical mineral due to supply chain risks and economic vulnerability, the Government has been working with industry to publish a new Critical Minerals Strategy this year. This will focus on securing vital materials for economic growth, national security, and the clean energy transition. The Strategy will refine our approach to domestic production and target UK strengths to support business resilience.