Written questions by Onwurah.

Innovation and Technology, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the SEPs Resource Hub launched by the IPO in October 2024 on small and medium enterprises.

From its launch on 22 July 2024 to 15 January 2025, the Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) Resource Hub has been accessed by 869 unique users. The IPO has sought feedback from stakeholders to assess whether they have accessed, understood, and implemented the Resource Hub’s guidance. Stakeholders have indicated that the Hub has helped to reduce uncertainty around FRAND (fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory) licensing, particularly for small and medium enterprises, and encourage more informed negotiations between SEP holders and implementers. Further evaluation is being undertaken, both to help make improvements to the Hub and assess whether intended impacts have been achieved.

Innovation and Technology, pursuant to the Answer of 27 December 2024 to Question 20613 on UK Research and Innovation: Staff, what are the duties of regionally-organised business growth advisers; and who pays their salaries.

Regionally organised business growth advisors (also known as innovation and growth specialists or scaleup directors) provide a comprehensive spectrum of innovation and commercial expertise to high-potential small to medium-sized innovation-driven companies. They help clients tackle priorities such as improving the innovation process, forging international business collaborations, becoming investment ready, and structuring for growth. Additionally, they act as a gateway to UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) range of support and significant regional, national, and international innovation resources.The salaries of these business growth advisors are funded by Innovate UK, which is part of UKRI.

Innovation and Technology, with reference to the Intellectual Property Office publication entitled Standard Essential Patents: 2024 forward look, published on 27 February 2024, what his planned timetable is for the launch of the public technical consultation.

The Government recognises the importance of Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) to the UK economy and the objectives published in February 2024 continue to underpin the Intellectual Property Office’s (IPO) work. Delivering against those objectives, the IPO launched its SEPs Resource Hub on 22 July 2024 to help UK small and medium enterprises navigate the SEPs ecosystem.The IPO continues to consider options that could help improve the functioning of the SEPs ecosystem. Any options requiring regulatory change would be part of a full, formal consultation. A final decision on holding a consultation would rest with Ministers.

Innovation and Technology, whether it remains his policy to invest £2 billion over 10 years in engineering biology.

The government remains committed to supporting the UK Engineering Biology sector. DSIT will set out its spending plans in line with the Spending Review timelines set by HM Treasury, with departmental funding settlements being announced in the Spring

Innovation and Technology, with reference to the Government’ press release of 25 September 2024 entitled PM tells US investors Britain is open for business as he secured major £10 billion deal to drive growth and create jobs, what the evidential basis is that the investment in the Blyth data centre will create 4,000 jobs.

Northumberland County Council expect this project to deliver over 1,600 direct jobs, including 1,200 long-term construction jobs, and over 2,700 indirect and induced jobs over the course of the development.

Innovation and Technology, pursuant to the Answer of 20 December 2024 to Question 18934 on Government Departments: ICT, which companies were contracted to provide IT services after consideration of spend requests against the Digital Assurance Gateway.

Contracts awarded for the activities in scope for Question 18934 as at the time of providing this response include Microsoft, Convergence/Extreme, Objective, IBM, Dextrous Web/Thoughtworks, Kerv, AWS and IBL.

Innovation and Technology, pursuant to the Answer of 20 December 2024 to Question 18934 on Government Departments: ICT, what the total value of the spend requests considered against the Digital Assurance Gateway is; and what the average time taken to consider them was.

The total value of the spend requests considered for the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology and its Arm’s Length Bodies against the Digital Assurance Gateway as at the date of answering question 18934 was £98.2m. Consideration against the Gateway has been incorporated into a pre-existing weekly liaison meeting between Integrated Corporate Services and the Central Digital and Data Office and is dealt with via short discussions.

Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department is taking to reform the regulation of Standard Essential Patents to support innovation and growth among UK technology small and medium enterprises.

The Government recognises the importance of Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) to the UK economy and the objectives published in February 2024 continue to underpin the Intellectual Property Office’s (IPO) work. Delivering against those objectives, the IPO launched its SEPs Resource Hub on 22 July 2024 to help UK small and medium enterprises navigate the SEPs ecosystem.The IPO continues to consider options that could help improve the functioning of the SEPs ecosystem. Any options requiring regulatory change would be part of a full, formal consultation. A final decision on holding a consultation would rest with Ministers.

Innovation and Technology, with reference to the English Devolution White Paper, published on 16 December 2024 , what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of including local universities in

Universities are central to generating local economic growth. As magnets for talent and investment and anchors for clusters, they create centres of research and innovation excellence across the country. Enabling partnership working between local governmen...

Innovation and Technology, with reference to the English Devolution White Paper, published on 16 December 2024, within what timeframe UKRI expects to deliver a future regional innovation funding programme.

We are developing a new local innovation funding programme to support high potential innovation clusters across the country, with delivery timelines subject to the outcome of the next phase of the Spending Review.Our new programme will build on our experi...

Innovation and Technology, how many full-time equivalent members of staff at UKRI work on (a) local and (b) regional innovation partnerships.

UKRI’s leadership and staff routinely engage with stakeholders across the UK. Additionally, UKRI has several teams focussed on regional engagement, including:Innovate UK’s place engagement team, including a Director, Deputy Director and ten full time mana...

Innovation and Technology, with reference to the English Devolution White Paper, published on 16 December 2024, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of supporting non-Mayoral Stra

Building on our experience of delivering the UK-wide Strength in Places Fund, Innovation Accelerators and Launchpads programmes, we will develop a new local innovation funding programme that will bolster high potential clusters across the UK, including in...

Innovation and Technology, with reference to page 69 of the English Devolution White Paper, published on 16 December 2024, how much funding will be available to UK Research and Innovation to extend regional partn

Our ambition through the innovation commitments announced in the English Devolution White Paper is to generate innovation-led growth across the country, and help places make stronger contributions to a thriving national innovation ecosystem. Through UK Re...

Innovation and Technology, how much Official Development Assistance (ODA) expenditure has been provided to the (a) Newton Fund and (b) Global Challenges Research Fund (i) in total and (ii) in each year since thei

Official Development Assistance (ODA) spend, by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) on research and development (R&D) is as follows:(£m)20192020202120222023TotalGCRF391379220139841,430Newton Fund11999722415450Due to the Machin...

Innovation and Technology, with reference to his Department's press release of 12 December 2024 entitled £100 million public-private health research boost from which budget is the public sector funding coming; a

The Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines Pricing, Access, and Growth (VPAG) Investment Programme is enabled by circa £400m of funding from scheme members over 5 years.Approximately 75% of total Investment Programme funding will boost commercial clinical...

Innovation and Technology, what training has been provided to civil servants in his Department on the public sector equality duty.

In June 2024, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology published updated guidance on the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED), available to all staff via the intranet. The guidance provides a clear framework on the principles of the duty, compl...

Innovation and Technology, with reference to the State of the relationship report 2024, published by the National Centre for Universities and Business on 5 December 2024, what steps he is taking to increase the n

The Government incentivises university-business interactions through funding for UKRI programmes. Higher Education Innovation Funding (HEIF), provided through Research England is the largest source of knowledge exchange funding to English universities, pr...

Innovation and Technology, what steps he is taking to increase the transparency in the use of artificial intelligence by public bodies.

The Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard (ATRS) establishes a standardised way for public sector organisations to publish information about how and why they are using algorithmic tools. The ATRS is mandatory for government departments and arm’s-len...

Innovation and Technology, whether the Government Office for Technology Transfer has a role in supporting his Department to provide digital expertise to other Government Departments.

No. GOTT works with government departments and Arm’s Length Bodies to accelerate government’s innovations towards the market, through guidance, direct practical expert support, grant funding for specific opportunities, and access to networks.

Innovation and Technology, with reference to the oral evidence to the Science, Innovation and Technology Select Committee of 3 December 2024, HC 504, whether the moratorium on government IT procurement decisions

The moratorium on government IT procurement decisions over £1m (now known as the Digital Assurance Gateway) is still in place. The Integrated Corporate Services Digital Assurance Team and Central Digital and Data Office have considered 11 spend requests f...