Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to page 142 of the Annual Report and Accounts 2021-22 of the UK Research and Innovation, for what reason there was a reduction in net operating expenditure from 2020-21 to 2021-22.

UK Government investment in R&D is subject to changes between years that reflect the profile of long-term investments. For example, in FY 2020/21, there was a one-time increase to infrastructure investment of £300 million through UKRI’s world class labs which concluded in 2021/22.

In FY 2021/22, as a result of the challenging financial situation resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic, the Government made a temporary reduction to the UK’s Official Development Assistance target, from 0.7% to 0.5% of GDP. This led to a reduction in UKRI’s ODA-eligible R&D expenditure by £256 million in FY 2021/22 compared to FY 2020/21.