Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much (a) grant aid and (b) other financial support was provided to tech start-ups in the UK in the last five years.
Answered by Margot James
In the last financial year (2015-16) 27% of Innovate UK’s £547m core budget was spent to support business-led innovation in micro organisations. British Business Bank programmes have provided more than 110 tech Start-ups with investment in excess of £245m during the last 5 years.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps the Government is taking to prevent a brain-drain of UK young tech talent moving to find employment outside the UK.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The UK has a strong history in science, research and innovation, with an eco-system that fosters talent by providing opportunity in both industry and academia.
We are committed to ensuring that Britain is the best place in Europe to innovate, patent new ideas and start a business, including tech businesses. Our academic base holds 16% of the world’s most highly cited papers, generated from only 1% of the world population. Innovate UK provides support to innovative businesses to help them develop ideas and recruit and retain tech talent.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that increases in the number of foreign, high-fee-paying students does not jeopardise access by UK students to places at their local university.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
International students are not in competition for places with British students. The UK is the second most popular destination for international students, and those coming here to study count towards our education exports. International students pay fees to fund their places, and also bring other benefits including providing diversity on our campuses.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he is taking to attract more manufacturing jobs to the UK.
Answered by Anna Soubry
The Government is creating a highly competitive business environment that makes the UK an attractive location for new manufacturing investment and drives strong productivity growth and export success. We have invested £300m over five years in the High Value Manufacturing Catapult to support the commercialisation of the innovation and new technologies that will be crucial to the future of manufacturing in the UK.
UK Trade and Investment works to attract foreign manufacturing companies to set up and grow in the UK. The recently published EY report (EY’s Attractiveness Survey 2016, UK) put the UK ahead of Germany for a second year running in terms of attracting manufacturing related foreign direct investment.