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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what comparative assessment his Department has made of the level of research and development expenditure in the UK and EU member states.

The Department regularly assesses comparative levels of R&D expenditure in the UK and EU member states.

The latest ONS data estimates that overall gross R&D expenditure in the UK was £33.1bn in 2016, which was 1.7% of GDP in that year. 2017 data is due to be released in March 2019. The latest OECD international comparison of R&D expenditure ranked the UK 10th among EU nations in 2016. More details can be found here http://oe.cd/msti.