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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he is taking to support innovation.

We committed in our manifesto to making the UK the best place in Europe to innovate, patent new ideas and grow a business. We are strongly supporting innovation through providing the right business environment for investment with R&D Tax Credits, and a wide range of support through our innovation agency – Innovate UK. This includes our network of Catapult Centres.

Since 2010 the UK has risen from 14^th to second place in the Global Innovation Index. My Rt Hon friend the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills recently announced that we will be publishing a National Innovation Plan to build on this progress.