Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of engineering biology as a domain of strategic competition on the economy.

The Modern Industrial Strategy is founded on supporting high-growth sectors across the UK’s strengths. As part of developing the Digital and Technologies Sector Plan Government assessed a range of technologies to assess those of highest growth to be included as frontier technologies. Engineering biology was selected as a frontier technology as part of this assessment process, backed by £380 million of investment in the Sector Plan.