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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether the £7 billion of additional spending for research and development will be in addition to replacing EU funding lost after the UK leaves the EU.

At Spending Review 2015, the Government protected science funding, committing to invest £26.3 billion between 2016-21, and has since committed to an additional £7 billion by 2021-22 – the largest increase ever. The terms of the Withdrawal Agreement, if ratified, would provide for continued UK participation in EU Programmes, including Horizon 2020, to December 2020 and for the lifetime of projects under the programme. If an agreement is reached, projects approved during this period will be able to continue with an uninterrupted flow of EU funding. If we leave the EU without a deal in place, the underwrite guarantee and extension are Government commitments to provide funding required for the UK to participate in Horizon 2020 until the end of 2020 and for the lifetime of projects. In this scenario, HM Treasury will provide additional funding on top of existing departmental budgets – further demonstrating the Government’s commitment to the UK’s world-class research base.