Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps the Government has taken to promote innovation by SMEs (a) across the country and (b) in the North East.

The Government is acting decisively to enable all businesses to innovate. It has launched new Prosperity Partnerships, invested a further £25m in the Connecting Capability Fund, and in financial year 2021-22 supported more than 850 SME manufacturing firms with almost 150 digital transformation projects through Made Smarter Adoption – including in the North East.

The North East boasts innovative SMEs like cleantech business Nova Pangaea Technologies, which has secured Innovate UK grant funding, Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund equity investment, and Department for Transport funding. It is also home to Teesside Freeport, which will become a cluster of innovation in the region.