Written questions by Obese-Jecty.

Communities and Local Government, with reference to the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, CP 1337, published on 23 June 2025, how many new planning officers will be recruited in (a) Cambridgeshire and (b) Huntingdonshire.

The government has committed to recruiting at least 300 additional planners as part of our Planning Capacity and Capability Programme. Recruitment is being delivered through national schemes such as the Local Government Association’s Pathways to Planning graduate programme and Public Practice, which place experienced built environment professionals into councils across England. It is up to individual local planning authorities to determine if they wish to take part in these schemes based on their own circumstances and need. We do not set specific targets for individual counties or districts, including Cambridgeshire or Huntingdonshire. I also refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 67508 on 21 July 2025, which sets out our wider plans for supporting local planning authorities to attract, retain and develop the skills they need.

With reference to the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, CP 1337, published on 23 June 2025, when she plans to implement the reduction in opportunities to challenge consent decisions.

The Planning and Infrastructure Bill introduces changes to the way judicial reviews are handled for National Policy Statements and development consent orders relating to nationally significant infrastructure projects. It removes the paper permission stage, meaning applications will go directly to an oral permission hearing in the High Court. In addition, where the High Court decides at that hearing that a case is “totally without merit,” the claimant will not have a right of appeal.The Government intends to commence these provisions as soon as practicable after Royal Assent, once the necessary procedural changes are in place.

Communities and Local Government, with reference to the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, CP 1337, published on 23 June 2025, what discussions the Local Government Pension Scheme has had with the Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

The Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) is managed locally by its administering authorities. Discussions between Mayors and administering authorities are a matter for those parties.

Innovation and Technology, with reference to the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, CP 1337, published on 23 June 2025, what progress he has made on making the UK the third most important life sciences economy globally by 2030.

Since publishing the Life Sciences Sector Plan in July, we have moved rapidly into delivery. The Plan sets out 33 concrete commitments, each with clear metrics, milestones and a named Senior Responsible Officer to drive accountability. Robust assurance mechanisms are being established to track the delivery of the Plan, including progress reporting into the Life Sciences Delivery Board every four months, and a stakeholder engagement plan to ensure sector views on delivery are captured. Delivery is already underway – with recruitment going live for the Chair and CEO of the Health Data Research Service with the Wellcome Trust, and the recent launch of both Europe's first Biofoundry for mRNA manufacturing and the £85m Obesity Pathway Innovation Programme with Eli Lilly – all part of building the UK into Europe’s leading life sciences economy by 2030.

Innovation and Technology, with reference to the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, CP 1337, published on 23 June 2025, what the scope is of the National Quantum Technologies Programme.

The UK's Industrial Strategy names quantum as one of six priority frontier technologies in the dedicated digital and technologies sector plan.The Plan commits to delivering an ambitious next phase of the UK’s National Quantum Technologies Programme to accelerate the development, scaling and adoption of quantum technologies.Priorities outlined in the plan include:Progressing the UK’s 5 National Quantum Missions.Enabling access to infrastructure, developing an innovative regulatory environment and delivering a series of deep international collaborations across research, industry and regulation.Developing a skills action plan with the sector.

Innovation and Technology, with reference to the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, CP 1337, published on 23 June 2025, what proportion of funding for preclinical infrastructure linked to translational research networks will be allocated to (a) developing non-animal methods of testing and (b) phasing out animal testing.

The Government is committed to supporting non-animal alternatives and will publish a strategy to support their development, validation and adoption. The majority of the £30 million for preclinical infrastructure linked to translational research networks announced in the Industrial Strategy is expected to support alternative methods, however exact allocations are yet to be completed and will be announced in due course.

Communities and Local Government, with reference to the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, CP 1337, published on 23 June 2025, what progress she has made on reforming the Local Government Pension Scheme to consider local growth priorities in investment strategies.

The Pension Schemes Bill includes a new power to require Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) funds to include their approach to local investment in their investment strategies. The Pensions Schemes Bill and the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill also include new reciprocal duties on LGPS funds and strategic authorities to cooperate to identify and develop appropriate local investment opportunities. Wider reforms including consolidation of all LGPS assets in the LGPS asset pools and improved governance will also support LGPS investment in local and regional growth priorities.

With reference to the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, CP 1337, published on 23 June 2025, what progress he has made on accelerating the uptake of robotics via expanding the Made Smarter Adoption programme for SMEs.

The Government is committed to accelerating the adoption of robotics and other advanced technologies among SME manufacturers by expanding the Made Smarter Adoption programme and establishing the Robotics Adoption Hubs.Over the past three years of the programme, more than 1,600 businesses have benefited from digital roadmaps, over 400 SME leaders have received digital adoption training and over £16 million in private investment has been leveraged. Since April 2025, the programme now covers all nine English regions and, from 2026/27, up to £99 million will support further programme growth and impact.

Innovation and Technology, with reference to the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, CP 1337, published on 23 June 2025, what progress he has made on developing a route for international reliance for (a) medicines and (b) medical devices.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency launched an International Recognition Procedure for medicines in January 2024. The MHRA, with the support of the Office for Life Sciences and Department of Health and Social Care, is continuing the development of an international reliance framework for medical devices. The MHRA published on 22 July the government response to the consultation on Medical Devices Regulations, which address international reliance for medical devices. The MHRA intends to implement three international reliance routes for medical devices and intends to consult further on the international reliance routes for CE-marked medical devices.

Innovation and Technology, with reference to the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, CP 1337, published on 23 June 2025, what progress he has made on establishing the new Sovereign AI Unit.

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology has established the Sovereign AI Unit, backed by up to £500million, to back promising UK-based AI companies operating in critical domains. The Unit will provide targeted support to enable high-potential start-ups and scale ups to become national AI champions, with investment via the British Business Bank, and other government tools such as procurement, regulatory pathways and access to data, talent, and compute. It is early days for the Unit ahead of its funding coming online from next April but already it has invested £8 million in the OpenBind consortium to accelerate drug discovery, and allocated compute via the UK’s AI Research Resource to high-quality research projects.

Innovation and Technology, with reference to the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, CP 1337, published on 23 June 2025, what the purpose is of the AI Energy Council.

The AI Energy Council was established to address the growing energy demands of artificial intelligence.Co-chaired by the Secretaries of State for DSIT and DESNZ, the Council brings together leaders from the AI and energy sectors to advise on preparing the UK’s energy system for the increasing energy demand of AI. It also explores how AI can support a modern, efficient, and sustainable energy system, aligned with Clean Power 2030 goals and the UK’s net zero ambitions.

Innovation and Technology, with reference to the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, CP 1337, published on 23 June 2025, what the projected expansion is of the AI Research Resource in each year from 2025.

The UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy referenced the Government’s commitment to expand the Government’s AI Research Resource (AIRR) by at least 20x by 2030, accelerating AI innovation through significantly increased compute capacity and support for start-ups. The subsequent Compute Roadmap detailed how the Government intends to invest up to £2 billion to deliver a diverse, joined-up and user centered compute ecosystem. This includes over £1 billion to expand the AI Research Resource (AIRR) 20x by 2030 and up to £750 million for a new national supercomputer service in Edinburgh.

Innovation and Technology, with reference to the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, CP 1337, published on 23 June 2025, what proportion of funding for Genomics England will be allocated to (a) developing non-animal methods of testing and (b) phasing out animal testing.

Genomics England, Our Future Health and UK Biobank contribute important human data to the UK’s diverse research portfolio that supports alternative method development, including organ-on-a-chip, cell-based assays, functional genomics and computer modelling. The Health Data Research Service will also contribute in future, However, this research is not categorised by application, so calculating funding for alternative methods specifically is not possible. UKRI also invests £10 million annually in the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs), with future investment under review.The Government will publish a strategy to support alternative methods later this year.

Innovation and Technology, with reference to the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, CP 1337, published on 23 June 2025, what proportion of funding for the Health Data Research Service will be allocated to (a) increasing development of non-animal methods of testing and (b)phasing out animal testing.

Genomics England, Our Future Health and UK Biobank contribute important human data to the UK’s diverse research portfolio that supports alternative method development, including organ-on-a-chip, cell-based assays, functional genomics and computer modelling. The Health Data Research Service will also contribute in future, However, this research is not categorised by application, so calculating funding for alternative methods specifically is not possible. UKRI also invests £10 million annually in the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs), with future investment under review.The Government will publish a strategy to support alternative methods later this year.

Innovation and Technology, with reference to the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, CP 1337, published on 23 June 2025, what proportion of funding for UK BioBank will be allocated to (a) developing non-animal methods of testing and (b) phasing out animal testing.

Genomics England, Our Future Health and UK Biobank contribute important human data to the UK’s diverse research portfolio that supports alternative method development, including organ-on-a-chip, cell-based assays, functional genomics and computer modelling. The Health Data Research Service will also contribute in future, However, this research is not categorised by application, so calculating funding for alternative methods specifically is not possible. UKRI also invests £10 million annually in the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs), with future investment under review.The Government will publish a strategy to support alternative methods later this year.

Innovation and Technology, with reference to the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, CP 1337, published on 23 June 2025, what proportion of funding for Our Future Health will be allocated to (a) developing non-animal methods of testing and (b) phasing out animal testing.

Genomics England, Our Future Health and UK Biobank contribute important human data to the UK’s diverse research portfolio that supports alternative method development, including organ-on-a-chip, cell-based assays, functional genomics and computer modelling. The Health Data Research Service will also contribute in future, However, this research is not categorised by application, so calculating funding for alternative methods specifically is not possible. UKRI also invests £10 million annually in the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs), with future investment under review.The Government will publish a strategy to support alternative methods later this year.

Communities and Local Government, with reference to the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, CP 1337, published on 23 June 2025, how many (a) gigafactories, (b) laboratories and (c) data centres have opted in to being designated as Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects.

No gigafactories, data centres or laboratories have yet opted into the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP) consenting process. Regulations which will enable large-scale data centres to ‘opt in’ to the NSIP consenting process are intended to be laid in Parliament for approval later this year and we anticipate a number of applicants will make use of the process once they are able to do so. Gigafactories and laboratories can already request to ‘opt in’ to the NSIP consenting regime under existing prescriptions of types of business or commercial projects in the Infrastructure Planning (Business or Commercial Projects) Regulations 2013.

Innovation and Technology, with reference to the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, CP 1337, published on 23 June 2025, what progress he has made on bringing globally mobile manufacturing investments to the UK via the Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund.

The up to £520m Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund was launched in 2024 to incentivise commercial-scale manufacturing of medicines and medical devices. The fund aims to drive economic growth and build UK health resilience. There have been four application rounds to date and we expect to announce the first set of grant winners in the coming month. In addition, we have recently invested £30 million in a new UK RNA Biofoundry, and we continue to work on our long-term partnerships with Moderna and BioNTech, which will grow the UK’s manufacturing and R&D capabilities for the benefit of UK patients.

With reference to the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, CP 1337, published on 23 June 2025, what progress he has made on reducing trial approval times to under 150 days.

The Department is committed to cutting the current time it takes to get a clinical trial set up, to under 150 days by March 2026 with the aim of making the United Kingdom a world leader in clinical trials. We are streamlining the set-up and delivery of clinical research through the UK Clinical Research Delivery (UKCRD) programme as set out in our recent publication, Transforming the UK clinical research system: August 2025 update, which is available at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/transforming-the-uk-clinical-research-system-august-2025-updateThe UKCRD programme has rapidly implemented a Study Set-Up Plan, co-led by the Department and NHS England to address the delays affecting clinical research set-up through reducing unnecessary bureaucracy, by standardising commercial contracts and removing duplicative steps at sites to create a standardised pathway, for example in pharmacy set-up, to free up workforce capacity. The second phase of the Plan was completed in June 2025, with mandatory use of the new processes and templates for commercial trials by October 2025. The successful implementation of the Plan will be closely monitored for impact.

With reference to the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, CP 1337, published on 23 June 2025, what progress he has made on doubling commercial interventional trial participants by the end of 2025.

The Department is monitoring progress on commercial interventional trial participation via the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The number of participants recruited to commercial interventional trials in the United Kingdom was 21,108 in 2024/25 and 4,635 in the first quarter of 2025/26.To ensure the UK’s international competitiveness and to attract more commercial interventional trials to the UK, the Government has implemented a Study Set-Up Plan through the 4-nation UK Clinical Research Delivery (UKCRD) programme. The second and final phase of the UKCRD Study Set-Up Plan was completed in June 2025, as part of efforts to cut clinical trials study set up times to 150 days by March 2026.The NIHR is also supporting increased participation in clinical trials with the online service 'Be Part of Research', making it easier for people to find and take part in health and care research and for researchers to recruit suitable participants.