Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much the British Business Bank has invested in life science businesses since it was established.
Answered by Margot James
British Business Bank (BBB) equity programmes have invested over £37m in life science businesses since BBB became a PLC in November 2014. The BBB also manages a number of government programmes which were facilitating finance to businesses prior to November 2014. Including these, BBB equity programmes are currently investing over £130m of finance in life science businesses. Approximately 8% of the BBB’s total equity investment portfolio is invested in life science businesses.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions he has had with medical research charities on the future availability of the Charity Research Support Fund in the event that a single public body replaces the research councils.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
Recognizing the public benefit arising from research funded by charities and that charities do not pay full economic costs – the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) has maintained the charity research support element of Quality Related (QR) research funding at £198m pa through to 2016-17.
The “Allocation of Science and Research funding 2016 – 2020” confirmed the Government’s expectation that throughout this period HEFCE should “continue to selectively focus funding on excellent research with impact wherever this is found … and to incentivise Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) to work with businesses and charities, leveraging additional investment, and to supervise postgraduate researchers”. It will be for the HEFCE Board to determine how much to provide for charity research support from within their overall research allocation in 2017-18, once they have received their annual Grant Letter from BEIS.
The creation of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) will bring together the Research Councils, Innovate UK and the research and knowledge exchange functions of HEFCE. These later functions will reside within a new Council - Research England. Decisions on the priorities for allocating QR research funding for 2018 onwards will be a matter for Research England.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department plans to maintain the Charity Research Support Fund beyond 1 April 2017.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
Recognizing the public benefit arising from research funded by charities and that charities do not pay full economic costs – the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) has maintained the charity research support element of Quality Related (QR) research funding at £198m pa through to 2016-17.
The “Allocation of Science and Research funding 2016 – 2020” confirmed the Government’s expectation that throughout this period HEFCE should “continue to selectively focus funding on excellent research with impact wherever this is found … and to incentivise Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) to work with businesses and charities, leveraging additional investment, and to supervise postgraduate researchers”. It will be for the HEFCE Board to determine how much to provide for charity research support from within their overall research allocation in 2017-18, once they have received their annual Grant Letter from BEIS.
The creation of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) will bring together the Research Councils, Innovate UK and the research and knowledge exchange functions of HEFCE. These later functions will reside within a new Council - Research England. Decisions on the priorities for allocating QR research funding for 2018 onwards will be a matter for Research England.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether the Government has made an assessment of future levels of research funding in the UK after the UK leaves the EU and existing projects have been completed.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The UK will maintain its status as a global centre for research and innovation. In last year’s Spending Review the Government committed to protecting science resource funding in real terms from its 2015-16 level of £4.7 billion a year for the rest of the parliament, as well as committing to invest in new scientific infrastructure on a record scale – £6.9 billion over the period 2015-2021.
While the UK remains a member of the EU, funding and collaboration arrangements continue unchanged. Researchers can continue to bid for competitive EU research funding such as Horizon 2020 while we remain a member of the EU. The Government will work with the Commission to ensure payment when funds are awarded. The Treasury will underwrite the payment of such awards, even when specific projects continue beyond the UK’s departure from the EU. Access to apply to Horizon 2020 and subsequent funding programmes after we leave the EU will be a matter for the negotiations that will follow the triggering of Article 50.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 16 September 2016 to Question 45694, how much the Government spent on space funding in each year from 2010 to 2016.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The UK Space Agency was established on 1 April 2011. In line with the formal allocations received from the parent department BEIS (former Department for Business, Innovations and Skills), the UK Space Agency reported the following spend in each financial year.
Financial year | Total Net Expenditure(i) |
| £m |
2011/12 | 256.5 |
2012/13 | 237.4 |
2013/14 | 322.6 |
2014/15 | 316.2 |
2015/16 | 349.9 |
(i) The total net expenditure comprises subscriptions at the European Space Agency, National Programme investments, and Agency’s running and programme delivery costs.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate he has made of the number of recruitment agencies which require clients to register as a business before finding them employment.
Answered by Margot James
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy does not hold information on how many recruitment agencies have made their clients register as a business before finding them employment.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 10 October 2016 to Question 44431, which businesses related to the space sector his Department has had discussions with since the vote to leave the EU; what the outcome of those discussions has been; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The Government continues to work with businesses in the space sector, through the Space Leadership Council and other forums, to understand the risks and opportunities for the sector in preparation for negotiations to exit the EU.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of the vote to leave the EU on the UK's (a) space sector and (b) role in the European Galileo satellite navigation system project.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
There are a number of factors that the Government will need to consider when developing our strategy for negotiating our withdrawal from the European Union. The Department is working closely with businesses to understand their concerns and I will be working with colleagues across Government to make sure we understand all of the potential risks and opportunities across the economy. This will continue to inform our approach as we seek to shape our future relationship with Europe.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to prevent the loss of technologies being developed in the UK after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The UK has a long and strong history in science, research and innovation, and a world-leading reputation, being ranked third in the Global Innovation Index in 2016. We have protected the science resource budget in real terms from its 2015/16 level of £4.7 billion for the rest of the parliament. Looking ahead, we want to ensure that the excellent work being done by our researchers, universities and innovative businesses continues. The Government has committed to underwrite payment of EU research funding for specific projects even when they continue beyond the UK’s departure from the EU.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to increase the number of people in the UK with high-level specialist skills in data science.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The Government recognises the need to increase the number of people with high-level skills in data science for the benefit of the UK, and is taking a range of measures to boost the supply of people with these skills.
The Alan Turing Institute is a £67 million joint venture between the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and five leading UK Universities (Cambridge, Edinburgh, Oxford, UCL and Warwick). It is the UK’s national institute for data science, and training the next generation of researchers is a key part of its mission.
Other institutes supported by the Research Councils include the Hartree Centre (a centre of excellence in High Performance Computing), the Farr Institute of Health Informatics Research, and the Isaac Newton Institute in Cambridge, which are all helping researchers to develop their skills to make better use of data.
The Research Councils are taking other steps to increase the supply of researchers with data skills, for example all Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council-funded doctoral students are required to be trained in informatics, data analysis and computational methods as a core part of their training. They support numerous Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs) involved in data analysis, including the University of Edinburgh’s Data Science CDT, and the Big Data and Cloud Computing CDT at the University of Newcastle. And the £19.5 million Q-Step programme is designed to promote a step-change in quantitative social science training in the UK.