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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what his Department's budget is for science spending for each year until the target of 2.3 per cent of GDP has been achieved.

Science, Research and Innovation will be at the heart of our Industrial Strategy and this Government has bold ambitions to increase R&D and back industries of the future. Our vision to reach R&D investment of 2.4% of GDP within ten years and 3% in the longer-term is part of this.

The Government clearly demonstrated its commitment to science and research in the 2016 Autumn Statement, committing an additional £4.7 billion to R&D funding covering both science and innovation over the period 2017/18 to 2020/21. This equates to an extra £2 billion a year by 2020/21, the biggest increase in any parliament since 1979.