Asked by: Gordon Marsden (Labour - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of encouraging hairdressers to obtain hairdressing qualifications.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
I refer the hon. Member to the answer provided to the petition P002432, “The regulation of the Hair, Barber and Beauty industries”, 20 May 2019, Official Report, Volume 660, Column 6P.
Asked by: Gordon Marsden (Labour - Blackpool South)
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 representatives of the Hairdressing Council on the (a) regulation and (b) registration of hairdressers.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
I refer the hon. Member to the answer provided to the petition P002432, “The regulation of the Hair, Barber and Beauty industries”, 20 May 2019, Official Report, Volume 660, Column 6P.
Asked by: Gordon Marsden (Labour - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what independent input the Oil and Gas Authority has sought to inform their investigations concerning the pumping of liquids by Cuadrilla into their fracking site at Preston New Road in Lancashire.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
In February 2019, the OGA announced it would work with recognised and independent geologists and scientists to carry out a scientific analysis of the data gathered during Cuadrilla’s operations at Preston New Road between October and December 2018. This work includes inputs from the British Geological Survey (BGS), Dr Ben Edwards, Nanometrics Inc and Outer Limits Geophysics; further information can be found on the OGA website. Additionally, during operations the OGA seeks expertise from external experts, including the BGS and from Bristol University.
Asked by: Gordon Marsden (Labour - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions she has had with (a) representatives of the hospitality company industry and (b) the Competition and Markets Authority on OYO's business model and practices.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
Any concerns should be raised directly with the Department, DCMS (who support the tourism industry) or the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
Asked by: Gordon Marsden (Labour - Blackpool South)
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 OYO's UK website for lettings and bookings for guest houses and bed and breakfast outlets, if she will make an assessment of the appropriateness of the business model and practices of that company.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
Any concerns should be raised directly with the Department, DCMS (who support the tourism industry) or the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
Asked by: Gordon Marsden (Labour - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the effect on the economy of the number of people undertaking doctoral training.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The Government’s target to reach a total of 2.4% of GDP invested in R&D by 2027 will mean increasing the numbers of highly trained people working in research and innovation including those undertaking doctoral training.
Business-academia collaborations, decisions by internationally mobile companies to locate their R&D functions in the UK and the development of industrial clusters of companies all rely on access to pools of talented researchers. In addition, industrial clusters, particularly in the pharmaceutical industry, are often co-located in regions where there are also high quality research intensive universities. This co-location enables the flow of graduates and post-graduates between institutions and companies.
More broadly, a 2015 review on the impacts of doctoral training found that the overwhelming majority of doctoral graduates continued to be involved in the creation of new knowledge, innovation and development of new products and processes, both in the academic and business sectors. Employers highly valued the specialists knowledge and problem-solving skills possessed by doctoral graduates. https://www.ukri.org/files/skills/full-report-idc-pdf/
Asked by: Gordon Marsden (Labour - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the effect on the UK economy of the Government's Industrial Strategy proposals to increase the number of people undertaking a high-tech PhD.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The Government has made significant progress in delivering our Industrial Strategy commitments. Through the Industrial Strategy, the Government has committed to increasing overall investment in R&D to 2.4% of GDP by 2027 and 3% in the longer term.
In order to reach the 2.4% R&D target, we need to continue to attract, retain and develop research talent. This is why the government is investing in talent programmes delivered by the National Academies and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
The Government has increased its investments in PhDs to support the delivery of this target and the Industrial Strategy Grand Challenges including:
Alongside this, UKRI invests in CDTs more broadly, including the recent £446m investment in 75 CDTs across the engineering and physical sciences.
Asked by: Gordon Marsden (Labour - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions has he had with (a) university groups and (b) UK Research and Innovation on the sustainability of current funding for PHD qualifications.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
I regularly meet with universities, university groups and UKRI to discuss a number of issues. The government’s target to reach a total of 2.4% of GDP invested in R&D by 2027 will mean increasing the numbers of highly trained people working in research and innovation, including PhD graduates. In 2017/18, UKRI’s direct funding was supporting around 22,000 studentships, about 22% of the UK total. In addition, Research England’s QR Research Degree Programme (RDP) supervision fund provides more than £250 million of annual funding contributing to the costs that universities face in supervising research degree programmes.
In many cases, this investment is also made in partnership, leveraging further support from higher education institutions and industry to maximise the impact from the public investment. For example, in 2019, UKRI invested £100m in 16 new Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs) in Artificial Intelligence, based at 14 UK universities with 300 partners. Project partners are investing £78 million in cash or in-kind contributions and partner universities are committing a further £23 million, resulting in an overall investment of more than £200 million.
Given the large commitments partner universities make to these investments, we are mindful of the need to maintain sustainability. UKRI is currently developing a plan for the delivery of the government’s 2.4% target with stakeholders to ensure that we not only achieve these ambitious targets but do so in a manner that is sustainable and ensure long-term impact.
Asked by: Gordon Marsden (Labour - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the effect on European Research Council grants for UK researchers between June 2016 and March 2019 of the UK leaving the EU.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The table below outlines the number of awarded European Research Council grants in the UK since 2016.
| 2016 | 2017 | 2018 |
Starting Grant | 66 | 75 | 66 |
Consolidator Grant | 60 | 59 | 55 |
Advanced Grant | 41 | 65 | 47 |
Proof of Concept Grant | 30 | 27 | 31 |
Synergy Grant | - | - | 3 |
Total | 197 | 226 | 202 |
Further information can be found at https://erc.europa.eu/projects-figures/statistics.
Asked by: Gordon Marsden (Labour - Blackpool South)
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) British Academy, (b) Royal Society and (c) Wellcome Trust on the effect on British academics of being able to participate in joint bids with EU colleagues for future European Research Council grants as a result of the extension to Article 50.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
BEIS regularly engages with stakeholders in the science, research and innovation community on the impact of EU exit on British academics.
This includes with the British Academy, Royal Society and Wellcome Trust through the High Level stakeholder working group on EU Exit, universities, research and innovation, chaired by the Minister of State for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation.