Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether reforms will be made to the Academic Technology Approval Scheme in the context of MI5’s alert over the China General Technology Research Institute’s links to UK universities.

We have no current plans to reform the Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS) in connection with this issue. We keep the scheme constantly under review to ensure it remains relevant and appropriately targeted.

ATAS requires certain international students and researchers to obtain clearance before undertaking postgraduate programmes or research in areas that could present proliferation risks to the UK.

Universities remain responsible for due diligence on their international research collaborations, supported by advice on research security from the Research Collaboration Advice Team in the Department for Business Innovation Science and Trade.