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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to expand the UK's supercomputer capabilities.

The Government has set out its commitment to cement the UK as a world-leading science superpower. Increasing investment in Research and Development will help to achieve that ambition, including investing in new and upgraded high performance computing capability.

As announced in February 2020, the Government will be investing up to £1.2 billion in new supercomputing infrastructure for the Met Office to provide the UK with world-leading weather and climate science capability.

UKRI have also announced an investment of £34 million to expand and upgrade data and digital research infrastructure. This includes advanced analytical capability and enhanced capacity to reveal how COVID-19 has influenced urban mobility, and social and economic activity.