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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent steps his Department has taken to help secure investment in the North East’s life science cluster.

The Life Sciences Vision aims to build upon the UK’s geographic diversity of the Sector, by supporting clusters of excellence like the Northeast.

The Government has supported Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies in bringing a £400m investment to Billingham; and awarded a grant to Piramal Healthcare to upgrade facilities in Northumberland.

In March, we launched the £60m Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund to support businesses investing in UK life sciences manufacturing projects. The fund received a large number of applications, including companies in the Northeast. Applications are now under review. We expect to announce the first wave of successful applicants in Autumn.