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 page 11 of the Life Sciences Vision published on 6 July 2021, what plans his Department has to improve access to private finance for UK Life Sciences companies; and whether his Department plans to introduce research and development grants for small companies that do not require match funding.

The Government is committed to developing a globally competitive Life Sciences investment ecosystem where private and public Life Sciences companies can access long-term capital within the UK from investors committed to building successful companies here in the UK.

To support this, in July 2021, Government launched the £200m Life Sciences Investment Programme. This will leverage around £400m of private sector investment, making around £600m financing available for the sector over the course of the next 10 years. In addition, the Government established an industry-led Life Sciences Scale-up Taskforce, which aims to drive progress on the ease with which Life Science companies can start, grow, and scale up in the UK.