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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to Paragraph 5.65 of the Autumn Statement 2022, CP 751 published on 17 October 2022, whether the Government plans to create new Catapults in the next 12 months.

The £1.6bn funding announced on 17 November 2022 will allow Innovate UK to fund the UK’s Catapult Network to continue supporting innovation and de-risking the transition from research to commercialisation by providing access to world-leading facilities, skills, and equipment across the UK.

Innovate UK are responsible for ensuring the UK’s Catapult Networks are maximising industrial R&D, co-investment and benefit to the UK economy and any new Catapults would need to be assessed against criteria for new Catapults to ensure they are addressing market failures or clear strategic opportunities and would be subject to sustainable funding plus Ministerial agreement.