Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department plans to take to ensure value for money from additional funding allocated to the aerospace sector in the next five years.

The Budget confirmed £975m over 5 years to the Aerospace sector. Industry led applications for R&D co-investment from the ATI Programme enter a competitive process. Competition for funding is fierce and only the best projects are selected: those that offer real innovation, reduced emissions and tangible economic benefits to the UK. Each application is subject to a value for money assessment by DBT economists, which underpins the estimated benefits from the Programme of at least £20bn of further private investment to 2040 and abatement of 125 MtCO2 of UK attributable global aviation CO2 emissions.