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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, for what reason his Department committed to allocating research grants to universities through the Official Development Assistance programme before the budget was reduced.

Effective research and development programmes are frequently long-term and involve considerable planning and application stages in order to ensure value for money. It is standard therefore for some commitment to be made in advance of a project’s initiation. This commitment is always made on the understanding that there is no guaranteed funding past the point of the current Government spending review period.

The challenging financial situation we face due to the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in a temporary reduction in the UK’s aid spending target from 0.7% of GNI to 0.5%. This means having to make unexpected and difficult decisions when it comes to prioritising how we spend aid money to deliver the most impactful outcomes.