Mathematical Sciences

Lord Waldegrave of North Hill Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd April 2025 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Waldegrave of North Hill]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to support mathematical sciences.

[Lord in Waiting/Government Whip (Lord Leong) (Lab)]

My Lords, the Government are committed to supporting mathematical sciences across the United Kingdom. The Government fund a variety of initiatives to support schools through the DfE, amounting to £185 million since 2014. Direct research funding to UKRI amounts to £24 million. Funding to the Royal Society through DSIT amounts to £42 million. Our wider support to STEM stands at close to £100 million in the skills ecosystem, including Skills England. We continue to work directly with the mathematical sciences sector to identify further opportunities where the Government can support this critical activity.

[Lord Waldegrave of North Hill (Con)]

I thank the noble Lord for his Answer and indeed for the courtesy of his noble friend the Minister, who met me recently to discuss these issues. Does the noble Lord agree that the advanced mathematics are essential to underpinning everything that Britain hopes to achieve in AI and in advanced industry, including defence? Will he reaffirm the previous Government’s commitment to the Advanced Mathematics Support Programme—which has recently been cut, to the distress of Sir Demis Hassabis and others—and to providing the United Kingdom with the next-generation computing power that we need?

[Lord Leong (Lab)]

My Lords, to ensure value for money and alignment with government policies, we are reviewing the activities delivered by the Advanced Mathematics Support Programme and the funding it receives. So far, we have spent something like £33 million on it, and close to £185 million has been spent on the maths hubs. Some £24 million of this has gone through UKRI to some maths programmes. We are discussing how to ensure the continuity of these services and redirecting some of the funding while plans are drawn up to better focus the programme towards the Government’s opportunity mission and skills for the future, such as AI and data science. I can also assure the noble Lord that the Government have invested some £300 million in new supercomputers in Bristol and Cambridge, and are moving to increase computing capacity a further twentyfold by 2030.