Every parliamentary written question tabled by Chi Onwurah this session, with the full answer and department. Back to the MP page.
Showing 81–100 of 121 · Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
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, 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 experience of delivering initiatives such as the Innovation Accelerator pilots. At Budget, we announced these would be extended into 2025/26, delivering funding and bespoke support to bolster high-potential innovation clusters in Greater Manchester, Glasgow City Region, and the West Midlands.
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 Strategic Authorities to increase regional innovation activity.
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 non-Mayoral Strategic Authorities. We will work with areas that choose not to adopt the mayoral model, to increase innovation activity in regions both with and without devolution.
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 partnerships.
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 Research and Innovation, we will support more local leaders, working in partnership with businesses and universities, to unlock their regions’ innovation potential.The Spending Review settlement set out the overall R&D budget for my department, which is £13.9 billion for 2025/26. Further details of how this funding will be allocated will be announced in due course, and the next phase of the spending review will confirm multi-year budgets for innovation funding.
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 engagement between UKRI and Strategic Authorities.
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 government, universities and businesses will be at the heart of our future regional innovation funding programme.Enabling partnership working between local government, universities and businesses will be at the heart of our future regional innovation funding programme.
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 manager positions at Innovate UK, who work with around 400 regionally-organised business growth advisers.EPSRC has a team of eight regional managers.Research England has a team of five engagement leads.Members of staff focused on the investment delivery of place programmes, such as the Strength in Places Fund and Innovation Accelerators.
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 their launch; when each fund will close; and how ODA funding previously allocated to each fund will be redirected once these funds close.
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 Machinery of Government change, and reporting of previous years’ spend alongside spend now reported under the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, disaggregated data for solely DSIT’s share pre-2019 is not currently available.Both GCRF and the Newton Fund will come to a natural close by 31st March 2025. The Government will allocate future ODA to Departments as part of its standard Spending Review process.
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; and what proportion is public investment.
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 trials across the UK, including through the new Commercial Research Delivery Centres (CRDCs).The CRCDs are a public-private investment which include funding from the VPAG Investment Programme and £71m additional funding in England from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).
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-length bodies (ALBs), for algorithmic tools which have a significant influence on a decision-making process with public effect, or directly interact with the general public.
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 number of interactions between businesses and universities.
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, providing £280 million annually to support engagement with a range of partners, including businesses. HEIF includes a £20 million contribution specifically for university-business collaboration and commercialisation. Innovate UK’s Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs)programme links businesses with technical experts in UK universities. Currently, around 800 businesses, 100 knowledge bases (universities and other research organisations) and over 800 graduates are involved in KTPs.
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, compliance expectations, and conducting equality impact assessments. Staff were encouraged to use this resource to support their work.In addition, a PSED training video was included in the Policy Foundation Programme, run on DSIT's behalf by the Integrated Corporate Services. The first cohort took place on 18th November 2024.
Innovation and Technology, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of (a) housing costs and (b) the cost of living on (i) start-ups and (ii) innovation in the (A) science and (B) technology sectors.
DSIT supports startups and innovation across the UK, including through the UK’s innovation agency - Innovate UK. Over the last two years, Innovate UK has awarded £5.2 billion funding to more than 7,000 businesses across the UK.Innovate UK published the State of Innovation 2024 report on 6 December. This draws on data from over 2,000 UK businesses, to provide a view of businesses’ innovation activities, challenges and plans for the year ahead.The report does not specifically assess housing costs and cost of living, but assesses trends in barriers to innovation, including the cost of doing business, which will include these areas.
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 over £1 million is still in place; and how many requests for IT procurement have been (a) considered, (b) approved and (c) rejected since the implementation of the moratorium.
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 for the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology and its Arm’s Length Bodies against the gateway criteria since it was introduced on 14 August 2024, and none were rejected.
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, what training civil servants in his Department receive 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, compliance expectations, and conducting equality impact assessments. Staff were encouraged to use this resource to support their work.In addition, a PSED training video was included in the Policy Foundation Programme, run on DSIT's behalf by the Integrated Shared Services. The first cohort took place on 18th November 2024.
Innovation and Technology, with reference to the Strategic Partnership Arrangement 2024 between Microsoft and the Crown Commercial Service, what guidance is available to civil servants on the use of Microsoft Co-pilot.
The Generative AI Framework provides general guidance for civil servants using AI tools. The government is, in addition, currently evaluating Microsoft 365 Copilot via a formal experiment, the findings of which will feed into future guidance for civil servants. Training has been supplied centrally to increase the efficacy of Microsoft 365 Copilot alongside material on Civil service Learn on generative AI to raise awareness of benefits, limitations and risks of Generative AI tools, such as Microsoft 365 Copilot. Microsoft's agreement with its Public Sector customers ensures enhanced privacy assurance on Microsoft 365 Copilot, including a commitment that end-user prompts are not used to train external large language models.
Innovation and Technology, with reference to the Government’s response to the Independent Review of the UK’s Research, Development and Innovation Organisational Landscape, what steps he has taken to explore a sustainable source of funding for Public Sector Research Establishments to support them to undertake grant-based research funded at less than full economic cost.
There is a commitment in the response to the landscape review to investigate a sustainable source of funding for PSREs who undertake UKRI research funded at less than full economic cost.Work is in the scoping phase and we are continuing to explore ways to improve the landscape and ease of collaboration across the sector, including for PSREs.
Innovation and Technology, with reference to the Strategic Partnership Arrangement 2024 between Microsoft and the Crown Commercial Service, what guidance is available to civil servants on securing official documents held online.
Everyone who works with government has a duty of confidentiality and a responsibility to safeguard any government information or data that they access or share, and all government departments are required to meet a range of mandatory security standards. The ‘Government Security Classifications Policy’ and ‘Guidance 1.1: Working at OFFICIAL’ set a range of baseline security behaviours and controls for all civil servants to follow on how to process OFFICIAL information securely, wherever it is collected, stored, processed or shared across HMG (electronically, in hardcopy or verbally) and with the wider public sector and external partners. Government departments and other public sector organisations are responsible for ensuring civil servants understand their duties and responsibilities.Departments have Knowledge and Information Management professionals, and Digital and Data professionals, to help configure access permissions and other protections within their cloud based systems, such as within Microsoft 365.Microsoft has produced various pieces of guidance for the UK government, in partnership with the Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO), Government Security Group and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). These have been created to support government organisations that use Microsoft 365. They outline how to configure the Microsoft 365 platform to enable a secure and interoperable experience for civil servants operating at the OFFICIAL tier.
Innovation and Technology, which Minister is responsible for the interface between innovation and business to drive growth.
The Minister of State for Science, Research and Innovation is responsible for Innovation across the Missions, including the Growth Mission. However, a wide range of DSIT’s policy areas support businesses and contribute to innovation-led growth, and therefore all Ministers will have an interest. A full list of Ministerial responsibilities is at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/government-ministers-and-responsibilities.
Innovation and Technology, what the budget is for the Government Office for Technology Transfer in the 2025-26 financial year.
The budget for the Government Office for Technology Transfer in financial year 2025-26 has not yet been set. Having now reached agreement with HM Treasury on an overall funding envelope for 2025-26, a business planning exercise is progressing to set budgets within the Department and for its supporting agencies and public bodies.