Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with which (a) local authorities and (b) devolved administrations his Department has discussed Innovation Deals.

The Levelling Up White Paper sets out how we will maximise the contribution of innovation to levelling up by building on existing and emerging strengths across the country.

We are committed to taking a place-based approach – tailoring support to the research, development and innovation strengths of different places and developing policies in partnership with local government, businesses and R&D institutions.

New Innovation Accelerator pilots will support three places in the UK to become major, globally competitive centres for research and innovation. In addition to receiving bespoke support from the UK Government, a total of £100m R&D funding will be available to these places for projects between 2022/23 and 2024/25. Should these pilots prove successful, we will consider how to build on this approach in future.

The policies in the Levelling Up White Paper have been informed by views from across the UK - including our R&D Place Advisory Group, which includes Local Enterprise Partnership, and the Devolved Administrations - to understand how we can build on our excellence in research and innovation so that more people and places benefit.