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

What steps he is taking with UK Research and Innovation to increase funding allocated to projects in regions of lower productivity.

We will publish an ambitious place strategy for R&D in the next few months. This will build on existing and emerging research and innovation capabilities across the country, enabling areas to ‘level up’ and reach their economic potential. This is an important part of our ambition to increase R&D investment across the economy.