Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, what assessment he has made of the potential economic impact of improving international intellectual property enforcement for UK creative businesses.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK Government recognises that intellectual property (IP) enforcement is essential to supporting growth for UK creators, rights holders and businesses operating internationally to secure returns on investment in innovation and creativity.
While no specific assessment has been made of the potential impact of improving international IP enforcement for UK creative businesses, the OECD has estimated trade in goods infringing UK IP rights was worth ÂŁ12.1 billion in 2021, with associated sales, jobs and public revenue impacts.
The Intellectual Property Office supports UK businesses protecting their rights overseas by working with international partners, law enforcement and industry to strengthen IP enforcement frameworks.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of sovereign AI capabilities in strengthening the UK's economic resilience.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
The Government is working to build domestic capability in AI where the UK has strengths; collaborate with trusted partners where this increases UK access and influence; and secure access to frontier capabilities where this is essential. We have taken significant steps to build sovereign capability through establishing the ÂŁ500m Sovereign AI Fund to support UK AI companies; provision of compute via the AI Research Resource; establishing AI Growth Zones to build data centres; and the ÂŁ1.1bn AI Hardware Plan to build out critical capabilities in key parts of the AI value chain.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, what assessment he has made of the contribution of university spin-out companies to regional economic growth.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
University spinouts make an important contribution to regional economic growth, creating high-skilled jobs, attracting investment, and developing local innovation clusters.
Research England’s analysis of the new UK University spinout register (https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/business-community/spin-out-register) shows that spin-out formation broadly reflects the geographical distribution of university research capacity. Between 2013 and 2024 55% of spin-out activity was outside the Greater South East.
Across the spending review period, UK Research and Innovation is investing £7.4bn to support innovative companies’ and spin-out growth, including £284 million per year through the Higher Education Innovation Fund, and £30million through Research England’s Connecting Capability Fund (CCF) to develop regional commercialisation ecosystems.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, what assessment he has made of regional disparities in the rate at which university research is converted into commercially successful spin-out companies.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
University spinouts make an important contribution to regional economic growth, creating high-skilled jobs, attracting investment, and developing local innovation clusters.
Research England’s analysis of the new UK University spinout register (https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/business-community/spin-out-register) shows that spin-out formation broadly reflects the geographical distribution of university research capacity. Between 2013 and 2024 55% of spin-out activity was outside the Greater South East.
Across the spending review period, UK Research and Innovation is investing £7.4bn to support innovative companies’ and spin-out growth, including £284 million per year through the Higher Education Innovation Fund, and £30million through Research England’s Connecting Capability Fund (CCF) to develop regional commercialisation ecosystems.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, what assessment he has made of the extent to which university spin-out companies remain headquartered in the UK following their first significant institutional investment.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In June 2025, the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) published the first university spin-out register (https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/business-community/spin-out-register), allowing us to understand the spin-out ecosystem better than ever.
Among 2,307 spinouts in the Spinout Register (as of September 2025), 9.3% were acquired, of these 70% from abroad. Meaning 6.5% of all spinouts registered were acquired from abroad. Even when acquired from abroad, the operations and R&D of the spin-outs in many cases will continue to be based in the UK, creating jobs, and attracting investment locally.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, what assessment he has made of the proportion of university spin-out companies that subsequently scale into companies employing more than 50 people in the UK.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In June 2025, the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) published the first university spin-out register (https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/business-community/spin-out-register), allowing us to understand the spin-out ecosystem better than ever.
Among 2,307 spinouts in the Spinout Register (as of September 2025), 9.3% were acquired, of these 70% from abroad. Meaning 6.5% of all spinouts registered were acquired from abroad. Even when acquired from abroad, the operations and R&D of the spin-outs in many cases will continue to be based in the UK, creating jobs, and attracting investment locally.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of future trade agreements on the ability of UK creative businesses to export digital services.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade) (Jointly with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government recognises the important contribution that the UK’s creative industries make to exports and economic growth. Through digital trade chapters in our trade agreements, we seek to reduce barriers to cross-border trade by supporting trusted data flows, preventing unjustified data localisation requirements and promoting digital trading systems. These provisions can help creative businesses that export services digitally to reach overseas customers, collaborate internationally and operate more efficiently across markets. The Government assesses the potential impacts of trade agreements throughout their development, drawing on stakeholder engagement and evidence from businesses to help ensure that trade policy supports UK exporters.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of regional trade missions focused on the creative industries on exports from businesses located (i) outside London and (ii) in the Buckingham and Bletchley constituency.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade) (Jointly with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government recognises that trade missions can help creative businesses develop international commercial relationships, access new markets and identify export opportunities.
For businesses located outside London, they can help showcase the strengths of creative clusters across the UK and increase access to overseas customers and investors.
While the Government has not made a specific assessment of the impact of creative industries trade missions on exports from businesses in the Buckingham and Bletchley constituency, the constituency forms part of the wider Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor, where creative, digital and technology businesses can benefit from opportunities to build international partnerships and grow exports.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of reducing non-tariff barriers in overseas markets on the export performance of UK creative industries.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade) (Jointly with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The creative industries are an important part of the UK economy and the Creative Industries Sector Plan positions the sector as a central pillar of the Government’s Industrial Strategy and Growth Mission.
Through the delivery of that plan and our Trade Strategy, we are continuing to engage with the industry on the barriers they face and maintain and expand market access for our creative exports through a wider range of trade tools, including digital trade agreements, mutual recognition of professional qualifications agreements, sector-specific partnerships and free trade agreements, to secure faster and more targeted outcomes for UK businesses in priority markets.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, what discussions she has had with institutional investors on supporting university spin-outs.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The government is taking steps to encourage institutional investment. This includes working with major institutional investors – Aegon UK, NatWest Cushon and M&G – on the first £200m British Growth Partnership Fund, investing in promising British businesses including spinouts. The British Business Bank also launched Venture Link, which shares their venture fund due diligence with pension funds to help them invest. Alongside the City of London Corporation, the government has launched the Sterling 20; a new partnership between 20 of the largest institutional investors. The group will work to channel the nation’s savings into key sectors, from which spinouts will benefit.