Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West and Pudsey)
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 the geographical spread of technology and knowledge economy jobs by region of the UK.
Answered by Amanda Solloway
There is no single accepted definition of knowledge economy jobs. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes workforce jobs by region and industry in its JOBS05 dataset, and more detail is available through Nomis official labour market statistics at :https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/.
Separately the ONS publishes a country and region breakdown of business R&D employment in table 18 of the annual release on research and development performed in UK businesses (BERD). The rounded aggregate figures for 2019 were:
| Full time equivalent |
| Total |
United Kingdom | 263,000 |
North East | 6,000 |
North West | 20,000 |
Yorkshire and the Humber | 14,000 |
East Midlands | 20,000 |
West Midlands | 26,000 |
East of England | 42,000 |
London | 31,000 |
South East | 50,000 |
South West | 22,000 |
England | 232,000 |
Wales | 7,000 |
Scotland | 15,000 |
Northern Ireland | 9,000 |
Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West and Pudsey)
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 geographical spread of research and development spending by (a) region and (b) local authority of the UK.
Answered by Amanda Solloway
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes a country and region breakdown of R&D spending in table 6 of the annual release on UK gross domestic expenditure on research and development (GERD). The aggregate figures for 2018 were:
Current prices | £ million |
| Total |
United Kingdom | 37,072 |
North East | 780 |
North West | 2,950 |
Yorkshire and the Humber | 1,641 |
East Midlands | 2,209 |
West Midlands | 3,285 |
East of England | 6,598 |
London | 5,886 |
South East | 7,029 |
South West | 2,483 |
England | 32,862 |
Wales | 786 |
Scotland | 2,706 |
Northern Ireland | 715 |
The ONS does not publish a breakdown of R&D spending by local authority area.
HM Revenue and Customs publish a breakdown of corporate R&D tax credit claims by county and unitary authority area at https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/878879/200408-_R_D_Supplementary_final_tables.xlsx, though those numbers are distorted by headquarters reporting effects, since the local and regional allocation is based on the postcode of the company's registered address, which might not correspond to where the R&D activity takes place.
Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West and Pudsey)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many meetings the Government has had with UK businesses on how they adapt to the new UK-EU trading relationships since the end of the transition period.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government has extensive engagement with businesses of all sizes, trade associations and business representative organisations. Engagement for the transition period supports the Government’s public information campaign to inform businesses and citizens of the actions they need to take now we have left the EU. Since October last year, BEIS has contacted over 4.7 million businesses. This engagement includes letters, meetings, webinars, and email bulletins.