Asked by: Kanishka Narayan (Labour - Vale of Glamorgan)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of reforms to UK listing rules, in the context of support for tech companies.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
In July 2024, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) overhauled the UK’s Listing Rules to align our rulebook with leading international counterparts and provide greater flexibility to firms and founders raising capital on UK markets. The Government has also granted the FCA powers to rewrite the UK’s Prospectus Regime, with new rules expected later this year. This will benefit all firms looking to list on UK markets, including tech companies.
The Government is committed to reinvigorating our capital markets to deliver growth across the UK and is pursuing ambitious reforms to make our markets even more competitive.
Asked by: Kanishka Narayan (Labour - Vale of Glamorgan)
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 support (a) AI development and (b) machine learning skills in the workforce.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Lifelong learning and development are key to ensuring everyone can prosper in an increasingly technology-driven world.
The AI Opportunities Action Plan outlines the steps the UK will take to build a strong, diverse talent pipeline, realising AI benefits across the economy. Once established, Skills England will work with government, the Industrial Skills Council, businesses, training partners, and unions, to assess AI skills needs and map pathways to address them.
Asked by: Kanishka Narayan (Labour - Vale of Glamorgan)
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 improve the commercialisation of (a) university research and (b) spinouts in the tech sector.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Support for university commercialisation is at its highest level ever. The Higher Education Innovation Fund, which supports knowledge exchange between universities and the wider world, is set at £280 million for the 2024-25 academic year. To support spinouts, the Government is implementing the recommendations of the Independent Review of University Spin-outs. 52 universities have signed up to the review’s recommendations on improving licensing and equity stakes, including taking 10% or less equity for software spin-outs. UKRI has launched a £40m proof-of-concept fund to support researchers develop ideas ahead of spinning out. Over the last 2 years, Innovate UK has awarded £5.2bn funding to more than 7000 businesses, of which 86% were SMEs.
Asked by: Kanishka Narayan (Labour - Vale of Glamorgan)
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 (a) help increase the UK's international role in AI innovation and (b) protect creative industries from the potential impacts of AI.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
We are already a global leader in AI. We are the third-largest AI market in the world, and we are home to world-renowned AI companies.
We are committed to building a thriving AI ecosystem that can scale and win globally. As outlined in the AI Opportunities Action Plan launched by the Prime Minister earlier this year, we will appoint AI sector champions in key industries, including the creative industries, to explore and encourage AI innovation.
The Government published a consultation on copyright and AI in December 2024, seeking views on a package of measures, which include a requirement for AI model developers to be more transparent about how they obtain their training material.
We welcome the significant engagement from across the creative and AI sectors on this important consultation and are carefully reviewing all responses to ensure any proposals taken forward properly support both – delivering a solution which will allow them to thrive.
Asked by: Kanishka Narayan (Labour - Vale of Glamorgan)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she is taking to improve access to growth capital for tech startups at (a) the scale-up stage and (b) other stages.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is committed to improving access to growth capital for startups and scaleups, recognising their vital role in driving economic growth and innovation.
At Autumn Budget, the Government provided over £1bn across the years 2024-25 and 2025-26 for the British Business Bank to enhance access to finance for smaller businesses. This includes additional funding for the Future Fund: Breakthrough scheme, which co-invests in high-growth, innovative firms.
The Government is also working to unlock additional private capital for productive investment. The Government published the Interim Report of the Pensions Investment Review alongside the Chancellor’s Mansion House Speech on 14 November 2024. The proposed reforms in the Interim Report could potentially unlock around £80 billion of productive investment, while boosting savers’ pension pots. The Government will publish the Final Report in Spring 2025. This will further consider the opportunity for, and scope of, investment in the UK by pension funds.
The Government is also taking further proactive steps to increase investment in innovative businesses by creating and managing new funding structures that will deliver returns for investors and deliver capital to high-growth businesses. In November 2024, the British Business Bank completed its £250m Long Term Investment for Technology and Science (LIFTS) investment alongside Phoenix Group with Schroders Capital. The £500m investment vehicle will invest in UK late-stage companies focused on technology and science, with 20% of the fund expected to be invested in life sciences.
Additionally, two UK pension funds, Aegon UK and NatWest Cushon, have agreed to collaborate with the British Business Bank on launching the British Growth Partnership to crowd-in institutional investment into venture capital funds and innovative businesses here in the UK.
Asked by: Kanishka Narayan (Labour - Vale of Glamorgan)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the compatibility of UK university STEM courses with the skills required by the tech sector.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department published a Jobs and Skills Dashboard in May 2024, which allows users to explore employment, demand and education pathways for both science, technology, engineering, and mathematics occupations and occupations most relevant to the UK critical technologies. This dashboard can be accessed here: https://department-for-education.shinyapps.io/ufs-jobs-and-skills-dashboard/?_inputs_&navbar=%22Jobs%20and%20skills%22&tabsID=%22Summary%22§orChoice=%22STEM%22&shortageTimeChoice=%22Air-conditioning%20and%20refrigeration%20engineers%20SOC2010%22. An accompanying ad-hoc statistics release was also made available on Explore Education Statistics in May 2024, which can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/supply-of-skills-for-jobs-in-science-and-technology.
Skills England will continue to assess the skills needs of the tech sector and the skills provision required to meet these skills needs. It is working closely with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and the Industrial Skills Council to bring businesses, training partners and unions together with national and local government, including Mayoral Strategic and Combined Authorities, to develop a clear assessment of the country’s skills needs for the tech sector and map pathways by which they can be filled.
Asked by: Kanishka Narayan (Labour - Vale of Glamorgan)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to support (a) defence and (b) aerospace innovation in Vale of Glamorgan constituency.
Answered by Maria Eagle - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) recognises the vital importance of the defence and aerospace industry in the Vale of Glamorgan, and in Wales more widely.
The Defence and Security Accelerator has a dedicated Innovation Partner in Wales and is supporting a number of projects with innovative small and medium-sized enterprises. The Defence Technology Exploitation Programme, for example, has funded Raplas Technologies, based in the Vale of Glamorgan who specialise in 3D printing applications within defence. While the MOD does not allocate spending to specific nations and regions in the UK, MOD spending in Wales totalled £914 million in 2023-24, equivalent to £290 per person.
The Defence Industrial Strategy will set out how we will prioritise and support businesses to create a more innovative and resilient defence sector across the UK, including in Wales.
Asked by: Kanishka Narayan (Labour - Vale of Glamorgan)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of research and development tax relief reforms on (a) startups and (b) scale-ups in the (i) deep tech sector and (ii) other sectors.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
In Autumn 2023, a review of the R&D tax credit system concluded. As part of this review, the previous Government extended the scope of the reliefs to include data and cloud costs, merged the RDEC and SME scheme, and introduced the Enhanced Support for Research-Intensive SMEs (ERIS), which provides a higher rate of relief for loss-making, innovative companies. The life sciences and deep tech sectors are expected to be among the main beneficiaries of ERIS.
The Government is committed to periodically evaluating the R&D reliefs to ensure they are as effective as possible and underpinned by a credible, up-to-date evidence base. It will be some time before the required outturn data is available to conduct an accurate review. The Government will continue to publish annual statistics on R&D claims by sector and company size on Gov.uk
Asked by: Kanishka Narayan (Labour - Vale of Glamorgan)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to ensure there is adequate competition in the veterinary care sector.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) are currently conducting full market investigation into the supply of veterinary services for household pets in the UK. Defra appreciates any recommendations that support the services that consumers of veterinary services receive, whilst retaining a strong and healthy veterinary profession within the UK.
The CMA operates as an independent, non-ministerial department, which is separate from Defra. As such, Defra is not able to provide comment on any investigations currently being conducted but will consider the recommendations once the investigation is complete.
Asked by: Kanishka Narayan (Labour - Vale of Glamorgan)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions she has had with (a) Cabinet colleagues and (b) the devolved Administrations on the potential for expanding the Stay Aware, Stay Safe, Stay Together campaign to schools and colleges across the UK; and what steps her Department is taking to promote the inclusion of similar safety awareness initiatives within the curriculum for 16-19 year olds.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
The department is currently reviewing the relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) statutory guidance for schools and will look carefully at responses to the public consultation conducted last year, consider the relevant evidence and discuss with stakeholders before setting out next steps to make sure the guidance draws from the best available evidence. As part of this process, we will explore whether additional content is required, including on personal safety and safety awareness.
Sixth-form colleges and further education colleges are autonomous, and as such are responsible for determining the content of teaching provision, including whether to teach young people about personal safety and how to stay safe when going abroad.