Science, innovation and technology Committee

Alan Gemmell Excerpts

Thursday 9th July 2026 Commons Chamber

[Dame Chi Onwurah]

I thank my hon. Friend and Chair of the Treasury Committee for her question. She highlights one of the principal concerns regarding technology-driven growth, which we reported on in our report “Flying blind: innovation, growth and the regions”: the access to capital, particularly for the kind of tech start-ups that we are discussing, which require long-term investment.

One thing we should regret most is DeepMind going to the US to form Google’s excellent AI base, rather than remaining as a UK-owned company.

How can we get better long-term investment? I recommend encouraging the growth of specialist funds with deep sectorial expertise. In achieving investment goals, we cannot get around the need to have technological knowledge and to attract international talent and technology leaders. The Government should also use their procurement of UK start-ups and scale-ups, because nothing is so valuable to a company as an actual contract signed with the Government, who are generally known to pay on time.

[Alan Gemmell (Central Ayrshire) (Lab)]

I am very happy to complete this hat trick of Scottish colleagues. I thank my hon. Friend for this excellent report, and I agree about the need to focus on science diplomacy, which is an opportunity for the UK; we should be much more ambitious about what we do.

As a former member of a science and innovation network overseas, running a team that wonderfully created the UK’s first trilateral water research project in the middle east, I put on record the great work that our science teams are doing around the world. Will she say more about opportunities to increase or prioritise work between science, technology and innovation network staff in embassies?

[Dame Chi Onwurah]

I thank my hon. Friend for that question, because it gives me the opportunity to put on record how much the work of the SINs, which I now think are called the SATs, or something—

[Alan Gemmell]

SAINTs, maybe.

[Dame Chi Onwurah]

Yes, the SINs and the SAINTs. The name may have changed, and there are concerns about the level of support they are receiving from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, but there was unanimous support for the work they did. There are countless examples of that support having enabled tech companies to invest in the UK, and UK tech companies to identify and address attractive markets across the world. The SINs, under whatever name, are a successful example of our science diplomacy network.