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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate his Department has made of the total revenue generated from the investment by small businesses in the life sciences sector in research and development for 2016-17.

The Department does not hold information on of the total revenue generated from the investment by small businesses in the life sciences sector in research and development for 2016-17.

At over 5,000 companies, small businesses comprise 93% of the life sciences sector. The Government recognises the importance of small businesses operating in the sector and the valuable contribution that they make.

To avoid overburdening businesses there is no mandate for companies to submit information about investments they make in R&D. In many instances it would be difficult to quantify the revenue directly attributable to R&D undertaken rather than by other business activities. Also due to the long timescales involved in R&D any revenue generated by R&D would be generated in a different year from when the R&D was performed.