Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether she has had discussions with representatives of Intel on (a) establishing a semiconductor factory in the UK and (b) investment in the UK semiconductor industry.

The National Semiconductor Strategy, published on 19 May, sets out the government’s approach to growing our domestic semiconductor sector, safeguarding the UK against supply chain disruption and protecting our national security.

Developed in collaboration with industry and academia, this Strategy articulates an ambitious vision that over the next 20 years, the UK will secure areas of world leading strength in the technologies of the future by focusing on our strengths in R&D, design and compound semiconductors. The Government is engaging widely with industry, including Intel, on taking forward the ambitious set out in the Strategy.

Our strategy is rightly differentiated to those other countries are pursuing. While others are investing in large-scale silicon manufacturing, reflecting their strengths, we will double down on our own complementary strengths in R&D, design and compound.

Intel are one of the most significant companies in the global semiconductor industry, their UK activity is largely focused on R&D, which is in line with the UK government’s focus for growing the domestic sector outlined in the strategy. They have also recently launched a UK branch of their startup accelerator programme, Intel Ignite, in recognition of the UK’s thriving tech startup ecosystem.

Industry partners have told us that difficulty accessing the software tools and manufacturing equipment to design, prototype, pilot and produce innovations is a major barrier to the sector’s growth. As set out in the Strategy, we will announce plans by the autumn to further support the competitiveness of the semiconductor manufacturing sector that is critical to the UK tech ecosystem or our national security.