Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to page 6 of the policy document entitled Statement of Levelling Up Missions, published on 25 January 2024, whether it remains his Department's policy that levels of public investment in research and development outside the Greater South East will increase by at least 40% by 2030.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
This public R&D regional investment target is committed to in legislation via the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023.
Increasing productivity right across the UK is fundamental to our mission to kickstart economic growth. Through our Industrial Strategy and the development of Local Growth Plans, we will build on local strengths to ensure that public and private R&D investment right across the UK helps local places to reach their potential.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, how much his Department spent on communications in the last year for which data is available.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
In financial year 2023/2024 the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) spent a total of £8,316,561.37 on communications. This is inclusive of £3,516,253.54 which are payroll related costs for staff who work in the Communications Directorate.
The DSIT Communications Team is responsible for all communications conducted by the department and its Ministers to help inform, promote and explain departmental policies through traditional and new media channels. This includes a number of paid-for marketing campaigns such as those designed to encourage uptake of R&D funding made available through Horizon Europe and campaigns to build skills required for the jobs of the future.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to page 173 of the Levelling Up the United Kingdom White Paper, published the Government on 2 February 2022, what recent progress she has made on targeting at least 55% of domestic R&D funding outside the greater south east by 2024-25.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade
Following the establishment of DSIT, the department set the aim to invest, over the Spending Review period, a cumulative £1.3 billion more in R&D funding outside the Greater South East than in 2021-2022, superseding the referenced BEIS target.
DSIT and UKRI are working together to achieve this target, delivering the Innovation Accelerators programme to accelerate innovation clusters, investing £200 million in 12 projects across the UK through the Strength in Places Fund, by 2025, and in Autumn 2023 DSIT announced funding for a next-gen Exascale supercomputing facility in Edinburgh, and a new AI supercomputer for the national AI Research Resource in Bristol.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what information her Department holds on the amount of R&D spend by the (a) Government, (b) higher education sector, (b) charity sector and (c) private sector in each region in each year since 1997.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade
The amount of R&D spend by sector and region is published annually by the Office for National Statistics.
The most recent release of these R&D spending breakdowns can be downloaded from: https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/governmentpublicsectorandtaxes/researchanddevelopmentexpenditure/bulletins/ukgrossdomesticexpenditureonresearchanddevelopment/2021
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, how many staff in (a) UKRI and (b) each of the Research Councils have job titles which include the words (i) equality, (ii) diversity, (iii) inclusion, (iv) gender, (v) LGBT and (vi) race.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade
UKRI’s workforce, including the Research Councils, consists of 8,733 people. Of this total, 22 have the search terms requested in their job title. Not all of the roles are full time.
The Government is auditing the cost-effectiveness of all activities that support the equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) of the workforce, through the review of EDI spending announced last June. As stated in the Autumn Statement by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Minister for Cabinet Office will be outlining the final proposals in response to the review in due course.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, how many staff in their Department have job titles that include the words (a) equality, (b) diversity, (c) inclusion, (d) gender, (e) LGBT and (f) race.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade
Currently across DSIT, there are three members of staff that hold roles which include the word inclusion. There is a nil return related on job titles which include the terms equality, diversity, gender, LGBT and race.
The Government is auditing the cost-effectiveness of all activities that support the equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) of the workforce, through the review of EDI spending announced last June.
As stated in the Autumn Statement by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Minister for Cabinet Office will be outlining the final proposals in response to the review in due course.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, how many equalities impact assessments her Department completed in each of the last five years for which data is available.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade
In line with the Public Sector Equality Duty, all public authorities, including our Department, are required by law to have due regard to certain equality considerations when carrying out their functions. While ‘equality impact assessments’ are a tool utilised in this process, there is no legal requirement for these assessments to be recorded in a specific format or centrally monitored. Therefore, providing data for each year is currently not feasible.