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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what effect the 2020 Spending Review will have on the proportion of GDP spent on research and development.

The Government has set out plans at Spending Review to cement the UK’s status as a global leader in science and innovation by investing £14.6 billion in R&D in 2021/22. This investment supports our commitments set out in the R&D Roadmap and helps consolidate our position as a science superpower as we build towards UK R&D investment of 2.4% of GDP by 2027.

Leveraging investment from the private sector that we will reach the target. By increasing public investment in R&D, we will attract further private sector investment. On average, £1 of public investment in R&D eventually leverages around £2 of additional private sector investment.

The UK already has world-class science and research and is ranked as one of the most innovative countries in the world, investing 1.7% of GDP in 2018. The first figures reflecting the proportion of GDP invested in R&D in 2020 are expected to be released in Spring 2022.