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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to encourage the adoption of new photonic technology by manufacturing and agricultural businesses.

‘Electronics, Photonics and Quantum’ was one of seven technology families defined by the Government in the Innovation Strategy (HMG 2021), which highlighted UK strengths in high potential emerging technologies.

The UK is a global leader in photonics, which contributed £14.5 billion to the UK economy in 2020. Government is keen to see this contribution grow across many applications, including manufacturing and agriculture. Agriculture was specifically cited in the Innovation Strategy as a domain for the convergence of the technology families.

Photonics was also included within the National Security Investment Act (NSI) to ensure its growth and adoption is secure.