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 172 of the Levelling Up in the United Kingdom White Paper which states that there will be a 36 per cent real terms increase for Innovate UK annual core funding between 2021-22 and 2024-25, how much of that funding money will be spent outside the Greater South East.

The Levelling Up White Paper set out the Government’s mission to increase domestic public investment in R&D outside the Greater South East by at least one third over the Spending Review period and at least 40 percent by 2030.

In support of this, BEIS will make levelling up one of the objectives of its R&D investment strategy and will aim for the regions outside the Greater South East to receive at least 55% of its R&D budget by 2024/25.

The Department is currently working to set detailed R&D budgets through to 2024/25. Further details about how the funding is allocated across the Spending Review period will be announced in due course.