Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what recent progress she has made towards the Government's target of spending £20 billion of funding from the public purse on R&D by 2024-25.

This Government has recommitted to increasing public expenditure on R&D to £20 billion per annum by 2024-25. This represents an increase of around a third from 2021-22.

Since its creation, DSIT has made strong progress towards optimising public R&D investment in line with Government’s strategic priorities. Our Science and Technology Framework was announced alongside a raft of new measures to support the UK’s world-leading position across the technologies of tomorrow. These include £100 million in initial start-up funding for the Foundation Model Taskforce to lead vital AI safety research and £121 million to improve commercial clinical trials as part of the £650 million ‘Life Sci for Growth’ package.