Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether he is taking steps to support investment in (a) start-ups and (b) university spin-outs.

The Government is taking steps to increase the availability of capital in the UK and help businesses access finance, including for start-ups and spinouts. For example, our creation of a National Wealth Fund will increase access to domestic capital for businesses, and our ten-year extension of the Enterprise Investment Scheme and the Venture Capital Trust initiatives maintains investment incentives.

To support startups, Innovate UK offers businesses loans, grants and investor partnerships at the start-up/R&D stage through to scale up and growth. To support spinouts, the Government is implementing the recommendations of the Independent Review of University Spin-outs published last year.