Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether her Department has made an assessment of the effectiveness of the methodologies of data collection used by the Office for National Statistics for its Business enterprise research and development, UK release; and whether that Office is taking steps to provide greater granularity in its next such release.

The Department of Science, Innovation and Technology continues to engage with the Office for National Statistics(ONS) on the development of the business enterprise research and development statistics, as they update and improve their data collection methodologies. The Office for National Statistics is an independent body, and this update is part of a wider programme of work to improve economic statistics and data capture.

In 2023 the Office for National Statistics increased the number of businesses sampled 10-fold, increasing from around 4,000 to around 40,000. This should increase the level of confidence around the granular breakdowns of business enterprise expenditure on research and development and enable the ONS to consider re-instating the level of granularity published in the next release.