Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, pursuant to the Answer of 17 January 2024 to Question 23744 on UK Research and Innovation: Staff, how many business growth advisors operate in each region.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The funding for IUK Business Growth core advisory activities for 2024-25 is £41.8m, servicing approximately 10,000 innovative businesses a year with light touch Growth, or more intensive High Growth/Scaling support, this data is published as part of Innovate UK’s “Transparency data”.
The Business Growth advisors (Full Time Equivalent) per region is as per the table below, the group marked national work cross-regionally:
Region | Approx. FTE | % split |
National | 44 | 9% |
Wales | 22 | 5% |
Scotland | 16 | 3% |
Northern Ireland | 6 | 1% |
North | 73 | 16% |
Midlands | 44 | 9% |
East | 88 | 19% |
South West | 53 | 11% |
South East | 48 | 10% |
London | 71 | 15% |
Total | 464 |
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, pursuant to the Answer of 17 January 2024 to Question 23744 on UK Research and Innovation: Staff, how much funding Innovate UK has allocated for business growth advisors in the 2024-25 financial year.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The funding for IUK Business Growth core advisory activities for 2024-25 is £41.8m, servicing approximately 10,000 innovative businesses a year with light touch Growth, or more intensive High Growth/Scaling support, this data is published as part of Innovate UK’s “Transparency data”.
The Business Growth advisors (Full Time Equivalent) per region is as per the table below, the group marked national work cross-regionally:
Region | Approx. FTE | % split |
National | 44 | 9% |
Wales | 22 | 5% |
Scotland | 16 | 3% |
Northern Ireland | 6 | 1% |
North | 73 | 16% |
Midlands | 44 | 9% |
East | 88 | 19% |
South West | 53 | 11% |
South East | 48 | 10% |
London | 71 | 15% |
Total | 464 |
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, pursuant to the Answer of 17 January 2024 to Question 23744 on UK Research and Innovation: Staff, whether Innovate UK has made an assessment of the value for money of business growth advisors funded by Innovate UK.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
UKRI continuously evaluates the impact of investments across its portfolio to ensure value for money and effectiveness. Innovate UK Business Growth, which includes the business growth advisors, has been independently evaluated multiple times since its inception in 2015, consistently demonstrating overall benefits. For example, the latest evaluation of the scaleup programme found a return on investment of 10:1. The overall remit, size and scope of the service has continued to evolve to respond to evolving demands and market conditions. We are reviewing all the support Innovate UK offers businesses to ensure it is as effective as possible at driving economic growth.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to the UK Science and Technology Framework, what steps he is taking to integrate the five critical technologies into the government’s modern industrial strategy.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Invest 2035 Green Paper, published on 14 October 2024, set out eight growth-driving sectors that will drive our Industrial Strategy. The Industrial Strategy, alongside Sector Plans for the growth-driving sectors, will be published in late Spring 2025. It is being designed in partnership with business, devolved governments, regions, and other stakeholders, as well as building on existing evidence gathered under the science and technology framework.
The Government is reviewing the growth-enabling role of technologies including quantum, artificial intelligence, engineering biology, semiconductors and future telecoms across the Industrial Strategy.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether it remains his policy to invest £2 billion over 10 years in engineering biology.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The government remains committed to supporting the UK Engineering Biology sector. DSIT will set out its spending plans in line with the Spending Review timelines set by HM Treasury, with departmental funding settlements being announced in the Spring
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, pursuant to the Answer of 20 December 2024 to Question 18934 on Government Departments: ICT, which companies were contracted to provide IT services after consideration of spend requests against the Digital Assurance Gateway.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Contracts awarded for the activities in scope for Question 18934 as at the time of providing this response include Microsoft, Convergence/Extreme, Objective, IBM, Dextrous Web/Thoughtworks, Kerv, AWS and IBL.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, pursuant to the Answer of 20 December 2024 to Question 18934 on Government Departments: ICT, what the total value of the spend requests considered against the Digital Assurance Gateway is; and what the average time taken to consider them was.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The total value of the spend requests considered for the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology and its Arm’s Length Bodies against the Digital Assurance Gateway as at the date of answering question 18934 was £98.2m. Consideration against the Gateway has been incorporated into a pre-existing weekly liaison meeting between Integrated Corporate Services and the Central Digital and Data Office and is dealt with via short discussions.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to the Government’ press release of 25 September 2024 entitled PM tells US investors Britain is open for business as he secured major £10 billion deal to drive growth and create jobs, what the evidential basis is that the investment in the Blyth data centre will create 4,000 jobs.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Northumberland County Council expect this project to deliver over 1,600 direct jobs, including 1,200 long-term construction jobs, and over 2,700 indirect and induced jobs over the course of the development.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to the Intellectual Property Office publication entitled Standard Essential Patents: 2024 forward look, published on 27 February 2024, what his planned timetable is for the launch of the public technical consultation.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government recognises the importance of Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) to the UK economy and the objectives published in February 2024 continue to underpin the Intellectual Property Office’s (IPO) work. Delivering against those objectives, the IPO launched its SEPs Resource Hub on 22 July 2024 to help UK small and medium enterprises navigate the SEPs ecosystem.
The IPO continues to consider options that could help improve the functioning of the SEPs ecosystem. Any options requiring regulatory change would be part of a full, formal consultation. A final decision on holding a consultation would rest with Ministers.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department is taking to reform the regulation of Standard Essential Patents to support innovation and growth among UK technology small and medium enterprises.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government recognises the importance of Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) to the UK economy and the objectives published in February 2024 continue to underpin the Intellectual Property Office’s (IPO) work. Delivering against those objectives, the IPO launched its SEPs Resource Hub on 22 July 2024 to help UK small and medium enterprises navigate the SEPs ecosystem.
The IPO continues to consider options that could help improve the functioning of the SEPs ecosystem. Any options requiring regulatory change would be part of a full, formal consultation. A final decision on holding a consultation would rest with Ministers.