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 paras 3.27 and 5.65 of the Autumn Statement, CP 751, published on 17 November 2022, whether the extra funding for UK Catapults is included within the commitment that public spending on R&D will increase to £20 billion a year by 2024-25.

The £1.6bn funding announced for the UK’s 9 Catapults on 17 November 2022 is for the Catapults’ five-year funding cycle starting April 2023 and running until March 2028. Therefore, part of this is included in the Government’s commitments for public spending on R&D reaching £20bn by 2024/25, whereas the funding from 2025/26 onwards is additional. Funding for the Catapults up to 2024/25 will come out of current budgets agreed in the 2021 spending review (SR) with funding beyond this SR being a first call on Innovate UK’s future SR settlements.