Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Supplementary Estimates 2022-23 published by his Department on 21 February 2023, if he will make an assessment with Cabinet colleagues of the potential impact of the unused funding for (a) Horizon and (b) Euratom on the Government's policies on support for research projects.

The Government is committed to ensuring the UK is a Science Superpower. This is why, despite the challenging fiscal circumstances, the Chancellor recommitted at Autumn Statement 2022 to increase R&D spending to £20 billion in 24/25, a 30% cash increase from 2021/22 (the largest ever increase over a Spending Review period).

At Spending Review 2021, the Government set aside funding for the cost of associating to EU R&D programmes as agreed in the December 2020 Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA). While the UK’s association has been delayed, our priority has been to support the R&D sector; this is why we introduced the Horizon Guarantee as well as £684m of additional support for the R&D, fusion and Earth observation sectors.

As is usual practice, departmental underspends are returned to the Exchequer at Supplementary Estimates.