Asked by: Gurinder Singh Josan (Labour - Smethwick)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department is taking to support the semiconductor industry.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Semiconductors are one of six frontier technologies set out in our Digital and Technologies sector plan, launched this week as part of our industrial strategy.
We will capitalise on our outstanding research base and strengths in chip design, compound semiconductors and next generation technologies including photonics.
Support includes a new UK Semiconductor Centre; Innovation and Knowledge Centres to help bring new chip technologies to market; a Chip Design Enablement Programme to boost our design capability, and improving the semiconductor talent pipeline to ensure industry can make the most of growth opportunities in this critical sector.
Asked by: Gurinder Singh Josan (Labour - Smethwick)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the UK's relationship with India.
Answered by Catherine West - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
First, let me express again how deeply shocked and saddened I was by the devastating plane crash in Ahmedabad.
The Foreign Secretary visited India in his first month in office. Since then, we have agreed the groundbreaking Technology and Security Initiative, concluded negotiations on the Free Trade Agreement and made big strides towards agreeing a new Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
The Foreign Secretary also visited Delhi earlier this month to discuss our ambitions to further strengthen and deepen our relationship in trade, security, technology, climate and education.