Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many businesses benefited from R&D tax credits in 2014-15; what the cost of R&D tax credits was to his Department in that year; and what the return on investment was of R&D tax credit expenditure for his Department.

R&D tax credit statistics are published by HMRC each September, so the final figures for 2014-15 won’t be available until September 2016.

HMRC’s latest statistics for 2013-14 show that there were 20,100 claims to R&D tax credits in that year, and that the scheme cost £1.75bn.

In March 2015, HMRC published an evaluation of R&D tax credits. This evaluation estimates that for every pound spent by the government onR&Dtax credits, between £1.53 and £2.35 is additionally spent onR&Dby UK companies.