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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to help encourage more private, self-funded research and development.

We are implementing the Innovation Strategy, which sets out the Government’s vision to make the UK a global hub for innovation by 2035. It aims to boost private sector investment across the whole of the UK, which is critical to achieve our target of 2.4% of GDP being invested in R&D by 2027.

Through the Strategy, we have committed to take action in areas such as regulation and public procurement, creating the conditions for all businesses to innovate. However, this is just the starting point, and over the coming and months and years we will continue to build an enabling environment for private sector investment in R&D.

Following the Spending Review, we are also ensuring that government funding attracts private – including from overseas – investment. For example, we have increased funding for core Innovate UK programmes, reaching c.£1bn per year by 2024/25, which are highly successful in securing private sector leverage.