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 plans to take to help ensure that medical research between British and Israeli scientists who receive funding from EU institutions continue to have access to similar levels of funding after the UK leaves the EU.

The UK will maintain its status as a global centre for research and innovation. In last year’s Spending Review the Government committed to protecting science resource funding in real terms from its 2015-16 level of £4.7 billion a year for the rest of the parliament. The Treasury decision to underwrite the grants of competitively bid for EU research funding will give British participants and their EU partners the assurance and certainty needed to plan ahead for collaborative projects that can run over many years. We are committed to ensure that the UK continues to be a world leader in international science, including medical research.