Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, what steps he is taking to ensure that engineering biology companies receive appropriate access to investment through the British Business Bank’s £4 billion Industrial Strategy Growth Capital initiative.

Answered by Chris McDonald - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Industrial Strategy Growth Capital programme invests in a portfolio approach across the Industrial Strategy sectors where the UK has technology strengths, including in engineering biology. The British Business Bank invests both directly into engineering biology companies, such as their investment into Cytospire Therapeutics, and through specialist funds with Engineering Biology coverage, such as Advent Life Sciences Growth Fund. Government is working on improving the join-up between its Public Finance Institutions including strengthening the pipeline of support from InnovateUK through to the British Business Bank.

Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, when funding opportunities for engineering biology businesses will be launched by Innovate UK through the National Engineering Biology Programme.

Answered by Chris McDonald - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Innovate UK recently launched several funding opportunities for engineering biology businesses including an £8.5m collaborative R&D competition, an £8m Investor Partnerships competition, and a £3m Contracts for Innovation pilot competition with Defra and FSA through the National Engineering Biology Programme. Further funding opportunities will be launched across the SR period, including an Accelerator (with aligned Feasibility funding) towards the end of the year, supporting early-stage businesses and entrepreneurs in commercialising engineering biology innovations. The UKRI future research and funding opportunities pages will provide details of forthcoming calls.

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 implications for his policies of the paper entitled The Rise of Mesoeconomics by Bill Janeway.

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 department values robust evidence and independent research in policymaking but does not comment on individual external academic papers or notes.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps her Department is taking to coordinate across the Home Office, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and the Department for Education to ensure that English language testing used for immigration and education purposes aligns with the United Kingdom’s national interest.

Answered by Mark Ferguson - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

The government supports adults aged 19+ in England who speak English as a second or additional language to access English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) provision, funded through the Adult Skills Fund (ASF), subject to the eligibility requirements laid out in the ASF.

The English language requirement ensures that people coming to the UK have the language skills they need, whether that is to work or study in the UK or to live with their family. Being able to understand, speak, read and write in English is an important part of a person’s overall ability to integrate and engage with the wider community in the UK.

Work is also underway in the Department for Education to review ESOL content to ensure adults can gain the language skills they need for life, work and further study.

Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, what steps he is taking to help improve the performance of the delivery of first class letters in the North East region.

Answered by Kate Dearden - Minister of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade)

While it is welcome that Royal Mail’s most recently released quality of service figures, for Q1 26/27, show an improvement, I have been frank in my conversations with Royal Mail’s leadership that the service has been unacceptable for too long and the pace of improvement must increase, including for customers in the North East.

Ofcom, as the independent regulator, is responsible for setting, monitoring and enforcing Royal Mail’s service standards under the universal service obligation.

Ofcom continues to monitor Royal Mail’s quality of service data closely and will take regulatory action where necessary to hold the company to account for improving service standards.

Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, what the timetable is for allocating the £184 million Engineering Biology Scale-Up Infrastructure Programme.

Answered by Chris McDonald - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

UKRI launched a £5m Engineering Biology Access to Infrastructure Pilot competition in September as part of the Engineering Biology Scale-Up Fund, with further rounds planned across the current SR period. The first phase of Tech-Boost funding, to enhance underpinning capability in Engineering Biology, is planned to launch before the end of the year, with spend anticipated through 2027. An Infrastructure Scale-up competition is also being planned for late 2026 / early 2027 to enable companies to access infrastructure to demonstrate the techno-economic viability of their technology ahead of commercial deployment. Future funding opportunities will be published on the UKRI webpages.

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the quality of (i) 4G and (ii) 5G coverage across Newcastle Central and West constituency.

Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)

In their Connected Nations Spring update (13 May 2026), Ofcom reported that, as of January 2026, almost 100% of the Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West constituency landmass has 4G geographic coverage from all four mobile network operators (MNOs), with standalone 5G available outside of almost 100% of premises across the constituency from at least one MNO.

Mobile connectivity is not only about whether a signal is present in a particular location, but about using that signal to make calls, use data reliably, access services and stay connected. Mobile network performance data has also started to be integrated into Ofcom’s Map Your Mobile tool, drawing on crowdsourced data and the Mobile Market Review will see the government consider quality of service further.

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, when the Creative Content Exchange will be launching and who will administer it.

Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)

The Creative Content Exchange launched in closed beta earlier this year, and plans to open the platform to more providers and consumers in 2027. It seeks to create a safe and trusted marketplace where content owners can make their digital assets available to AI and similar content consumers in a fair value exchange. The platform includes datasets from ten organisations, totalling over 6.8 million assets. The CCE is funded by UKRI’s R&D Missions Accelerator Programme, and the pilot is currently housed in the Natural History Museum pending decisions about an eventual legal entity.

Found: Current membership Dame Chi Onwurah (Labour; Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West) (Chair) Tom Collins

Found: Northampton Square EC1V 0HB E: [email protected] W: www.sciencecampaign.org.uk Chi Onwurah

Found: Artificial Intelligence) Cabinet Office 70 Whitehall, London SW1A 2AS By Email to: Dame Chi Onwurah

Found: Street London SW1A 2BQ E: [email protected] www.gov.uk/dcms 5 October 2026 Dame Chi Onwurah

Found: With best wishes, Dame Chi Onwurah MP Chair – Science and Technology Committee

Found: Admiralty Building Admiralty Place SW1A 2DY www.gov.uk 18 September 2026 Dame Chi Onwurah

Found: 100 Parliament Street London SW1A 2BQ E: [email protected] www.gov.uk/dcms Dame Chi Onwurah

Found: Click on the image to watch two-minute film by the Committee Chair, Chi Onwurah MP, introducing Under

Found: Click on the image to watch two-minute film by the Committee Chair, Chi Onwurah MP, introducing Under