Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
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 trends in the net flow of publishing scientists in relation to being domiciled in the UK and overseas in each of the last three years.
Answered by George Freeman
Science is a global co-operative endeavour and scientists circulate around the world to collaborate and learn from their peers. To further our ambitions as a science superpower, we need to ensure the UK is internationally competitive for this globally mobile talent, with reduced barriers to mobility. We have therefore set out actions to ensure the UK attracts, develops and retains talented individuals and strong teams in research and development, in the R&D People and Culture Strategy. The strategy also recognises the importance of mobility between sectors, including between academia and industry.
We do not hold information regarding the domicile of publishing scientists. Although information is available on their academic affiliations, scientists can be affiliated to multiple institutions in multiple countries at the same time.
International researchers continue to move to the UK: the Global Talent visa, introduced on 20 February 2020, accounted for 2,768 grants in the High Value visa category for the year ending September 2021, around half (50%) of all High Value visa grants. UKRI’s Endorsed Funder route for obtaining the Global Talent visa has endorsed 875 applications since April 2021, currently receiving 100 to 120 applications per month.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to encourage publishing scientists to work in the UK following the UK's departure from the EU.
Answered by George Freeman
We are continuously improving our approach to attracting global talent to the UK. Our R&D People and Culture Strategy set out actions to attract, retain and develop talented people, ensuring R&D careers in the UK are appealing to talented individuals and teams both domestically and internationally. The Global Talent visa, along with the forthcoming High Potential Individual and Scale-up visa routes announced in the Innovation Strategy, provides fast track visa routes for high skilled individuals and their teams.
Through the Office for Talent (OfT), we are delivering further visa reform and reviewing our talent offer to make sure that our programmes are among the best and most attractive in the world. BEIS has worked with the OfT and GREAT to launch an online service to attract highly skilled, international talent, providing key information on the UK offer and thus making it easier to come to the UK. This service is available at: https://greattalent.campaign.gov.uk/
The government will also launch a Global Talent Network, which aims to bring talented individuals to the UK in key science and tech sectors. The Global Talent Network will work with businesses and research institutions to identify UK skills needs and source Science and Tech talent in overseas universities and innovation hubs to bring to the UK.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many properties in England are owned by (a) off-shore companies and (b) off-shore companies registered in a Crown Dependency.
Answered by Paul Scully
HM Land Registry holds information on registered titles in England and Wales.
A dataset of Overseas companies that own property in England and Wales is publicly available via GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/hm-land-registry-overseas-companies-that-own-property-in-england-and-wales.
The dataset is a list of freehold or leasehold title registrations held by HM Land Registry, where the registered legal owner is an overseas company (a company incorporated outside of the UK).
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when he plans to bring forward legislative proposals to create a public beneficial ownership register of overseas entities that own UK property.
Answered by Paul Scully
As set out in my Written Ministerial Statement made on 2nd November 2021, the Government remains committed to establishing a new beneficial ownership register of overseas entities that own UK property. This register will help combat money laundering and achieve greater transparency in the UK property market. We will legislate when parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 9 November 2021 to Question 69687, whether the Government delivered the 20 million covid-19 vaccine doses due to be donated by the Government by the end of 2021 to countries in need.
Answered by George Freeman
On 30 December. the Government announced that we had met the target to donate 30 million COVID-19 vaccines by the end of 2021. We also reiterated our plan for millions more vaccines to be sent to other countries in 2022, including 20 million more Oxford-AstraZeneca doses and 20 million Janssen doses.
Of the over 30 million vaccines we have donated; approximately 25.4m have been received by COVAX, and 5.5m have been delivered directly by the UK to countries in need. These donations have benefitted more than 30 countries. The majority, 23.3m, of these donations have now arrived at their final destination, with 7.6 million of the doses received by COVAX that remain to be shipped to recipient countries in the next few weeks.
In addition to life saving vaccine, the Government have also recently pledged £105m of UK emergency aid to help vulnerable countries tackle Omicron, with a particular focus on Africa.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
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 officials in his Department on the sale of the Vaccine Manufacturing Innovation Centre.
Answered by George Freeman
The Vaccine Taskforce and UK Research and Innovation are working closely with VMIC, which is a private company, to ensure the UK has a strong domestic vaccine manufacturing capability to contribute to the UK’s resilience against COVID-19 and other future health emergencies. At present these discussions are commercially sensitive.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
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 the 20 million covid-19 vaccine doses to be donated by the Government by the end of 2021 to countries in need, what the expiry date is of those doses; and when the Government plans to deliver them.
Answered by Paul Scully
On 30 October, we announced a further donation of 20 million Oxford-AstraZeneca doses. Of this, 10 million has already been sent to COVAX, and 10 million more are due to be delivered in the coming weeks between now and the end of 2021 to some of the world’s most vulnerable people. This means that at least 30.7 million doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca will have been donated in 2021.
The UK, COVAX and AZ are working closely together and with international partners such as UNICEF to allocate vaccines according to need, facilitate the rapid delivery of doses and maximise the shelf life available to recipients. This includes the provision of regular forecasts to COVAX to assist planning. Doses are sent directly by AZ to UNICEF, rather than having to be processed by the UK Government. Vaccines delivered by COVAX are distributed in line with the World Health Organisation's 'equitable allocation framework', which helps ensure COVAX doses reach those countries most in need. Recipient countries are informed of vaccine expiry dates, and doses are delivered in consultation with countries via COVAX to ensure they are ready and able to begin immediate roll out.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans his Department has to rectify the £120 million gap between the allocations and commitments of Official Development Assistance funding provided by his Department to UKRI.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The challenging financial situation we face due to the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in a temporary reduction in the UK’s aid spending target from 0.7% of GNI to 0.5%. This means making difficult decisions when it comes to prioritising how we spend aid money to deliver the most impactful outcomes.
On 2nd December last year, my Rt. Hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary wrote to the Chair of the International Development Committee setting out the Strategic Framework for UK ODA, which details the UK’s foreign aid spending priorities. In line with these priorities, he confirmed each Department’s total ODA settlement on 26th January.
The Government recognises the importance of supporting international research partnerships and supporting the UK research sector. My Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer committed to increasing UK investment in R&D to £14.6 billion in 2021/22 in this recent Budget.
We are currently working with UKRI, and all our Global Challenges Research Fund and Newton Fund Delivery Partners, to manage the Financial Year 2021/22 ODA allocations. UKRI have written to their award holders to set out the process for reviewing ODA funding next year, and to explore options for individual programmes. (Full details have been published on the UKRI website).
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
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 of the reduction in Official Development Assistance funding allocated to UKRI on ongoing coronavirus vaccine development.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The challenging financial situation we face due to the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in a temporary reduction in the UK’s aid spending target from 0.7% of GNI to 0.5%. This means making difficult decisions when it comes to prioritising how we spend aid money to deliver the most impactful outcomes.
The Government recognises the importance of supporting international research partnerships, and supporting the UK research sector. Our commitment to research and innovation has been clearly demonstrated by my Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer’s Budget announcement of increasing investment in R&D across government to £14.6bn in 2021/22; and as has been set out in our Integrated Review ambitions, international collaboration is central to a healthy and productive R&D sector.
We are currently working with UKRI, and all our Global Challenges Research Fund and Newton Fund Delivery Partners, to manage the financial year 2021/22 ODA allocations. UKRI have written to many award holders setting out the next stage of the review of ODA funding next year, and to explore options for individual programmes. (Full details have been published on the UKRI website).
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
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 the statement entitled Official Development Assistance: Foreign Secretary's statement on 26 November 2020, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the reduction in Official Development Assistance funding allocated to UKRI on his Department's ability to meet the 7 global challenges outlined in his statement.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The challenging financial situation we face due to the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in a temporary reduction in the UK’s aid spending target from 0.7% of GNI to 0.5%. This means making difficult decisions when it comes to prioritising how we spend aid money to deliver the most impactful outcomes.
The Government recognises the importance of supporting international research partnerships, and supporting the UK research sector. Our commitment to research and innovation has been clearly demonstrated by my Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer’s Budget announcement of increasing investment in R&D across government to £14.6bn in 2021/22; and as has been set out in our Integrated Review ambitions, international collaboration is central to a healthy and productive R&D sector.
We are currently working with UKRI, and all our Global Challenges Research Fund and Newton Fund Delivery Partners, to manage the financial year 2021/22 ODA allocations. UKRI have written to many award holders setting out the next stage of the review of ODA funding next year, and to explore options for individual programmes. (Full details have been published on the UKRI website).