Innovation and Research: Manufacturing Industries
(asked on 9th February 2023) - View Source
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to the ONS dataset on Business enterprise research and development UK: 2021, published on 22 November 2022, what assessment she has made of the reasons for the decrease in R&D employment in manufacturing since 2018.
Table 5 of the ONS BERD release included figures for R&D employment in UK businesses by broad product group. This included the following estimates:
| 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
Total UK R&D employment | 596,000 | 614,000 | 629,000 | 712,000 |
Manufacturing | 179,000 | 178,000 | 178,000 | 158,000 |
The new ONS BERD data shows different product groups with different changes within an overall increase in total R&D employment. The ONS figures provide the current best estimate of R&D at the total UK level which have been validated against other available data. However, there is less data for validation and increased uncertainty in the estimates below the total BERD figures. The Government looks forward to further improvements from the ONS in how the BERD statistics are compiled in future releases.