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 174 of the Levelling Up the United Kingdom White Paper, whether his Department and other relevant Government Department will take the leading role in managing the Innovation Accelerators rather than relevant local bodies.

Innovation Accelerators will be locally led partnerships involving leaders in local government, business and universities, working with national Government and R&D funders. They’re designed to pilot a new approach to supporting three places in the UK to become major, globally competitive centres for research and innovation.

Each partnership will develop plans to boost innovation and attract new R&D investment in their city regions, building on existing work that each of these three city regions have already done to identify local strengths and opportunities, including through Science and Innovation Audits and local innovation plans.

They will receive bespoke support from the UK Government, led by BEIS in partnership with other departments.