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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to page 13 of the Government's paper, Industrial Strategy: Building a Britain fit for the future, whether the biggest ever increase in public investment is measured in percentage or absolute terms; and what comparative levels of investment have been in each of the last 30 years.

Over the five years from 2016/17 to 2021/22, public funding of R&D is set to increase from around £9.5bn to around £12.5bn in cash terms. Correcting for inflation, this is an increase of around £2.1bn in 2015 prices. This will be the largest five-year increase since records began, in absolute terms.

Regarding comparative levels, I refer the hon. Member to the following table:

Annual level of public funding of General Expenditure of R&D, £m in 2015 prices

Source: ONS GERD time series data. Publically-funded GERD includes Government, Research Councils and Higher Education