Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Independent - Gorton and Denton)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether his Department plans to provide funding for projects relating to (a) energy, (b) life sciences, (c) advanced materials and (d) other scientific fields in the North West in the 2025-26 financial year.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The government is committed to protecting record levels of R&D investment, having allocated £20.4 billion for the 2025/26 financial year. This substantial funding underpins a broad spectrum of scientific research and innovation, supporting areas such as energy, life sciences, and advanced materials.
In April 2025, DSIT confirmed UKRI’s allocation for 2025-26 of £8.8bn, this will support investments in the North West across these important scientific fields including the Henry Royce Institute – the UK National Institute for advanced materials research and innovation. The hub for the institute is at The University of Manchester, with University of Liverpool also a partner.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Independent - Gorton and Denton)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if he will take steps to help support industrial research in the North West.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The North West has unique industrial and scientific strengths that the government is committed to continue to grow as part of our ambition to drive the development of high-potential science and technology clusters across the UK.
Between the financial years 2021/22 and 2023/24 UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) annual investment in the North West rose from £671 million to £903 million. UKRI’s investments have supported key industrial research projects in the region including the Medicine Discovery Catapult, pioneering the next generation of complex medicines through the development of cutting-edge technologies and assay.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Independent - Gorton and Denton)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if he will take steps with Cabinet colleagues to include media literacy programmes in (a) local and (b) regional strategies.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology coordinates media literacy activity across government, aiming to embed media literacy in cross-cutting strategies.
Government is adopting a holistic approach to digital inclusion, integrating related policy on digital skills and media literacy. The Digital Inclusion Action Plan outlines steps towards delivering digital inclusion for everyone in the UK, including supporting community initiatives to boost digital skills and media literacy.
Under updated media literacy duties, Ofcom is also developing a ‘place-based’ model to embed media literacy into community digital strategies, working with the Good Things Foundation to support Digital Inclusion Hubs with media literacy.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Independent - Gorton and Denton)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps he is taking to tackle health misinformation.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Under the Online Safety Act, companies must remove illegal health mis- and disinformation content if they become aware of it on their services. This includes content amounting to the False Communications offence, capturing communications where the sender knows information to be false but sends it intending to cause significant harm: such as encouraging drinking bleach to cure flu. If a service is likely to be accessed by children, it will have to protect them from encountering harmful health mis- and disinformation.
The Act will also require large platforms to remove health misinformation if it’s prohibited in their terms of service.