Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what progress has been made on creating a roadmap for increasing investment in science to three per cent of gross domestic product in the last 12 months.

This Government has set out its vision to meet R&D investment of 2.4% of GDP within ten years and 3% in the longer-term. We have already increased research and development investment by £4.7 billion over the period 2017-18 to 2020-21. This equates to an extra £2 billion per year by 2020-21 and is an increase of around 20% to total government R&D spending, more than any increase in any parliament since 1979.

We will support business to do more R&D and innovation through our industrial strategy by making sure the wider business environment supports R&D investment and ensuring businesses have access to the skilled people they need to do R&D.