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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to para 6.65 of the Autumn Statement, CP 751, published on 17 November 2022, whether the 35 per cent increase in funding for UK Catapults is a real terms increase; and in which five-year funding cycle the increase will be.

The £1.6bn funding announced for the UK’s 9 Catapults on 17 November 2022 is for the Catapult’s next five-year funding cycle starting April 2023 and running until March 2028.

The 35% increase for this next five-year funding cycle is the gross total increase from funding provided for the current five-year funding period which runs from March 2018 to April 2023. The ‘real terms’ increase will be a function of the actual rate of inflation over the next 5 years.