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 the keynote speech made by the Minister for Science, Research and Innovation at Onward UK on 11 January 2023, when he plans to establish a unit in his Department to monitor the success of the UK’s clusters of innovation; and what its (a) name, (b) budget and (c) remit will be.

BEIS analysts are using their expertise to map the UK’s innovation clusters and understand trends, barriers and opportunities within them. Monitoring and evaluation are at the heart of good policy making, so we are also ensuring this is in place for all initiatives that help to support the UK’s clusters to realise their potential. For example, we are establishing a monitoring and evaluation framework to assess the impact of Innovation Accelerators, which is a new pilot programme supporting Glasgow, Greater Manchester and the West Midlands to become major, globally competitive centres for research and innovation.