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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans he has for the implementation of the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund; and how that fund will be funded.

A New Productivity Fund (NPIF) announced in the Autumn Statement will provide for £23 billion of spending between 2017-18 and 2021-22.

Through the NPIF the government will fund the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund. The fund will cover a broad range of technologies, to be decided by an evidence-based process. It will be delivered by Innovate UK and the Research Councils, and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) when it is established.

We will begin to identify different challenge areas between now and the Budget in 2017. More detail on funding breakdown and proposals will be set out in due course.