Asked by: Peter Bottomley (Conservative - Worthing West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking to help support scientists to transition to animal-free, human-specific technologies through (a) practical support, (b) the provision of training and (c) other means.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The Government, via UK Research & Innovation, funds the development of techniques that replace, reduce and refine the use of animals in research through the National Centre for 3Rs (NC3Rs). The NC3Rs encourages researchers’ to use non-animal methods (NAMs) in a number of ways, including supporting the skills base by funding PhD students to work only on the development of NAMs, and dedicated funding allowing researchers to test methods alongside existing animal studies. NC3Rs recently launched a network to bring researchers from academia, industry and regulatory authorities together to share knowledge on the use of NAMs methods for safety testing.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking to help align UK Research and Innovation priorities with Government priorities.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
As the UK’s largest funder of research and innovation, UKRI is central to delivering the objectives the government set out in the UK Science and Technology Framework, including across our portfolio of five critical technologies. UKRI is investing £250 million in Technology Missions to enable new and existing capabilities and capacity in artificial intelligence, quantum technologies and engineering biology, with a further £70 million announced to support future telecommunications. On levelling up, UKRI is helping to deliver our ambition to raise domestic public investment in R&D outside the Greater South East, through its £100 million Innovation Accelerators programme. Furthermore, through UKRI’s declaration on support businesses to grow and scale, they will simplify and expand their support for innovative firms, aiming to reach a million innovators by the end of the year and halve the average time it takes companies to go from application to receiving grant funding.
Asked by: Peter Bottomley (Conservative - Worthing West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of hosting a global summit on human-specific technologies for scientists and policymakers to discuss the transition to these methodologies.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The UK works closely with international partners and key organisations such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to promote the development and uptake of animal replacement technologies. There are currently no plans to host a summit on the matter.
Asked by: Dean Russell (Conservative - Watford)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of amending the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill to extend the list of cookie exemptions to include (a) advertising performance and (b) audience measurement cookies.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what collaborations on medical research are currently taking place between government-funded universities in the UK, and medical and research institutions based in China; and whether any of these collaborations relate to organ transplantation.
Answered by Viscount Camrose
The International Science Partnerships Fund and Newton Fund have active medical research programmes involving collaborations between UK Higher Education Institutions and Chinese counterparts. These predominantly focus on antimicrobial resistance and pandemic preparedness and none of them relate to organ transplantation.
Asked by: Matt Hancock (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, how many businesses Ofcom regulated (a) as of 20 May 2024 and (b) in 2016.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The government does not actively monitor how many businesses Ofcom are regulating. It is also not possible for Ofcom to provide an exact number for how many businesses it is currently regulating or regulated in 2016, as many of the companies that Ofcom regulates across a range of sectors are done so via general authorisation and notification regimes.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking to help reduce the use of animal testing in scientific research.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
On Monday 19th February, I announced that the government will be publishing a plan to accelerate the development, validation, and uptake of technologies and methods to reduce reliance on the use of animals in science. This summer, this will be led by a cross-government group that will consult stakeholders in industry, academia, and charities.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure farmers will continue to be able to use GPS equipment after the 3G switch-off.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The government welcomes legacy networks being switched off in a responsible way, as this will increase network efficiency, minimise energy consumption and free up spectrum for 4G and 5G networks and beyond.
Ofcom has published details of how it expects the mobile network operators (MNOs) to conduct the switch off in line with their regulatory obligations, and the mobile network operators have committed to offer broadly the same level of coverage via their 4G networks as they currently offer on their 3G (and 2G) networks.
Given MNOs’ assurances that 4G coverage should be available in place of 3G following switchover, farmers currently using 3G for navigation should therefore be able to rely on 4G coverage or, failing that, satellite navigation systems.
The Shared Rural Network aims to extend 4G coverage to 95% of UK landmass by the end of 2025, while further coverage improvements in the more hard-to-reach areas will continue to be delivered until the start of 2027. 4G coverage is already available to over 93% of the UK landmass.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that areas without access to 4G signal will continue to access signal after the 3G switch-off.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The government welcomes legacy networks being switched off in a responsible way, as this will increase network efficiency, minimise energy consumption and free up spectrum for 4G and 5G networks and beyond.
Ofcom has published details of how it expects the mobile network operators (MNOs) to conduct the switch off in line with their regulatory obligations, and the mobile network operators have committed to offer broadly the same level of coverage via their 4G networks as they currently offer on their 3G (and 2G) networks.
Given MNOs’ assurances that 4G coverage should be available in place of 3G following switchover, farmers currently using 3G for navigation should therefore be able to rely on 4G coverage or, failing that, satellite navigation systems.
The Shared Rural Network aims to extend 4G coverage to 95% of UK landmass by the end of 2025, while further coverage improvements in the more hard-to-reach areas will continue to be delivered until the start of 2027. 4G coverage is already available to over 93% of the UK landmass.
Asked by: Matt Hancock (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, how many businesses the Information Commissioner’s Office regulated (a) as of 20 May 2024 and (b) in 2016.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Under the Data Protection (Charges and Information) Regulations 2018, individuals and organisations that process personal data need to register and pay a data protection fee to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), unless they are exempt.
At the end of December 2016, 457,846 organisations were registered with the ICO. The most recent figure shows that on 20 May 2024, 1,183,158 organisations were registered with the ICO.