Innovation and Research: Expenditure

(asked on 21st February 2023) - View Source

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to Table 8 of the Office for National Statistics dataset entitled Business enterprise research and development UK: 2021, published on 22 November 2022, if she will make an assessment of the reasons for the decrease in expenditure on R&D performed in the accommodation and food service activities Standard Industry Classification division between 2019 and 2021.


Answered by
George Freeman Portrait
George Freeman
This question was answered on 1st March 2023

Table 8 of the ONS BERD release included figures for R&D performed by businesses by SIC division. This included the following estimates:

2018

2019

2020

2021

Total UK business R&D

£40,993m

£42,184m

£43,995m

£46,929m

Accommodation and food service activities

£112m

£301m

£233m

£143m

The new ONS BERD data shows different SIC divisions with different changes within an overall increase in total R&D expenditure. The ONS figures provide the current best estimate of R&D expenditure 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.

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