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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the contribution of Catapult centres to (a) the economy and (b) innovation since their introduction; and to what extent the level of private sector funding has compared to his Department's projections for such funding.

Latest figures show that the Catapult network has supported 2,851 SMEs, with 2,473 industry collaborations and has worked across 24 countries. It is too early to fully assess the long-term contribution of the Catapult network as many of the Catapults are still in their early stages. A new Evaluation Framework to provide a structure for measuring Catapult performance will be published later in the year.