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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has made a recent comparative assessment of the level of spending on research and development in (a) the UK and (b) EU member states; and if he will make a statement.

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.