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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs on the maintenance of the science and research funding in the international aid budget.

My Rt. Hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary ran a cross-government process with Departments to review in detail how ODA is allocated between key priorities. The Foreign Secretary announced an ODA settlement of £706 million for my Department on Tuesday 26^th January.

Though the impact of the COVID pandemic has impacted ODA budgets, international collaboration remains central to a healthy and productive R&D sector. The Government’s commitment to research and innovation has been clearly demonstrated, given we are increasing investment in R&D across government to £14.6bn in 2021/22, and as set out in our Integrated Review ambition.