Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to Table 1c of the Office for National Statistics dataset entitled Research and development expenditure by the UK government, published on 30 March 2023, if she will make an assessment of the reasons for the decrease in net expenditure on R&D by Higher Education Funding Bodies between 2020 and 2021.

UK Government investment in Research and Development is subject to changes between years that reflect the profile of long-term investments. The long-term trend is one of growing investment, with UKRI’s budget set to increase by 31% between Financial Year (FY) 2017/18 and 2024/25.

FY2020/21 saw significant one-off investments that did not continue to the same degree into FY2021/22. There was a one-time increase in infrastructure investment of £300 million via UKRI’s World Class Labs programme which concluded in 2021/22. FY2020/21 also saw a large increase in R&D expenditure for emergency Covid research, including vaccines.

Higher Education Funding Bodies are devolved for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Therefore, the Department cannot make an assessment of their expenditure.