Written questions by Onwurah.

Pursuant to the Answer of 8 November 2024 to Question 12054 on Department for Business and Trade: Finance, whether the figures referenced are included in the £20.4 billion mentioned on page 65 of the Autumn Budget 2024, published on 30 October.

The £20.4bn referenced on page 65 of the Budget document refers to all departmental research and development budgets for 2025/2026.This includes a research and development allocation for the Department for Business and Trade for 2025/2026 of £329m. This includes part of the over £2bn for the automotive sector and £975m for the aerospace sector announced over the next 5 years to 2029/2030 at Budget. The £520m announced for life sciences is not included in the overall figure as it is not research and development.The overall allocations for the automotive and aerospace sectors in the Budget are multi-year commitments, with detail to be agreed through the second phase of the Spending Review. This multi-year allocation includes R&D and Capital funding.

Innovation and Technology, whether he plans to increase the amount spent on research outside the Greater South East by 40%.

This public R&D regional investment target is set out in the statement of missions laid in relation to the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023.Increasing productivity right across the UK is fundamental to our mission to kickstart economic growth. Through our Industrial Strategy and the development of Local Growth Plans, we will build on local strengths to ensure that public and private R&D investment right across the UK helps local places to reach their potential.

Innovation and Technology, what the (a) annual and (b) consolidated take up is of cyber essentials by small and medium sized businesses.

a) Cyber Essentials certificates awarded to small and medium sized businesses:i. November 2023 to October 2024: 41,162, including 9,680 Cyber Essentials Plus certificates.ii. November 2022 to October 2023: 26,674, including 7,966 Cyber Essentials Plus certificates.iii. November 2021 to October 2022: 20,773, including 4,938 Cyber Essentials Plus certificates.iv. November 2020 to October 2021: 18,136, including 3,694 Cyber Essentials Plus certificates. b) From 1 May 2020 to 31 October 2024 (the period for which IASME Consortium have been government’s sole delivery partner for Cyber Essentials), 131,339 Cyber Essentials certificates have been awarded to small and medium businesses. This includes 27,217 Cyber Essentials Plus certificates.

Whether she has made an assessment of the quality of wifi on London North Eastern Railway services; and if she will have discussions with that company on improving that wifi.

The Department is working closely with London North Eastern Railway (LNER) to ensure all aspects of onboard experience, including WiFi, meet customers’ expectations. LNER reports on customer satisfaction to the Department every rail period and their most recent report indicates that Wifi is not a significant cause of customer dissatisfaction. We remain open to new innovations which improve the provision of onboard Wi-Fi and LNER and NR are leading a project to improve Wi-Fi connectivity on the approach to Kings Cross.

Innovation and Technology, with reference to his Department's publication entitled Assuring a Responsible Future for AI, published on 6 November 2024, what assessment he has made of the role that Government procurement can have in driving demand for AI assurance.

We know that Government procurement is a powerful lever to drive innovation, giving businesses confidence to invest in and shape markets by signalling Government needs and intent, and this is no different with AI assurance. By embedding them in public sector procurement, Government can likely drive demand for proven AI assurance practices and support improvements in the quality of the AI supply chain. We are continuing to assess this potential, and last week we launched a public consultation on our AI Management Essentials tool, with questions as to the potential market effects of including these practices in Government procurement processes.

Innovation and Technology, with reference to his Department's publication entitled Assuring a Responsible Future for AI, published on 6 November 2024, what assessment he has made of the role of legislation in driving the AI assurance market.

AI assurance supports organisations to demonstrate their compliance with existing – and future – standards and regulations. To complement the existing focus on proportionate, sector-specific regulation, the UK Government remains focused on its intention to introduce binding requirements on the handful of companies developing the most powerful AI systems, as announced in the King’s Speech. These proposals will build on the voluntary commitments already secured at the Seoul and Bletchley AI Safety Summits and build on the government’s ongoing commitment to ensure that the UK’s regulators have the expertise and resources to effectively regulate AI in each of their respective domains.

Innovation and Technology, with reference to paragraph 4.94 of the Autumn Budget 2024, published on 30 August 2024, HC 295, whether he has made an estimate of the return on investment in Horizon (a) this year and (b) in the future.

We expect to contribute over £8bn to Horizon Europe between 2024-2027, and are aiming for UK researchers to be awarded the maximum amount possible through successful funding bids. Our priority is to boost UK application and success rates to maximise this return. As we re-joined the programme in January of this year, and there is a lag between applications and awards, it is too early to properly assess UK success in the programme.We have secured financial protections that ensure the UK can clawback funds if contributions to Horizon Europe exceed receipts that go to UK researchers and businesses and researchers by 16%.

Innovation and Technology, with reference to paragraph 4.94 of the Autumn Budget 2024, published on 30 August 2024, HC 295, whether this applies to all UK universities; and what metric she will use to assess whether a university is world leading.

The Autumn Budget 2024 announces at least £6.1 billion of funding for core research, growing this allocation at least in line with inflation. Core research funding directly and indirectly supports universities through a range of programmes, including competitive research grants through UKRI’s research councils, investment in PhDs and fellowships, and Quality-Related research funding provided through Research England, informed by the outcomes of the Research Excellence Framework (REF). DSIT will work closely with the sector to effectively prioritise our R&D settlement, and will announce further details on funding allocations in due course.

Innovation and Technology, with reference to paragraph 4.96 of the Autumn Budget 2024, published on 30 October 2024, HC 295, by what process the figure of £500 million to invest in Project Gigabit and the Shared Rural Network was arrived at; and what that funding is expected to achieve.

The Autumn Budget set out funding of over £500m in 2025/26 for Project Gigabit and the Shared Rural Network. This only referred to the capital funding for these programmes, resource is allocated separately. The funding allocation is based on estimated delivery for the two programmes. For Project Gigabit this is based on the contracts we have signed and have planned. We remain committed to delivering gigabit connections to at least 99% of premises by 2030. Funding for the Shared Rural Network is based on agreements with the mobile industry to roll out new and upgraded masts to meet our target of hitting 95% geographic 4G coverage next year.

Innovation and Technology, with reference to paragraph 4.94 of the Autumn Budget 2024, published on 30 October 2024, HC 295, by what process the figure of £37 million for the Made Smarter programme was arrived at; how many firms that figure is planned to cover; and what the expected return is.

We will announce further details on the allocation of the R&D budget in 2025/26 in due course. We will ensure we continue to build on the success of the Made Smarter Innovation Challenge, which has supported more than 400 organisations, of which over half are SMEs.

Innovation and Technology, with reference to paragraph 4.94 of the Autumn Budget 2024, published on 30 October 2024, HC 295, by what process the support for the commercialisation of university research will be allocated; and what the expected return is.

DSIT and UK Research and Innovation are designing a new process to allocate this funding. This will build on engagement earlier in the year with the university sector on how to design proof-of-concept funding. While the benefits realised will depend on the precise design, evaluations of existing UKRI programmes show strong benefits. For example, the Medical Research Council’s evaluation of their developmental pathway funding scheme found that spin-outs from those awarded funding raised on average £4 million, whereas most spin-outs from projects marginally rejected for funding raised very little, or nothing.

Innovation and Technology, with reference to paragraph 4.99 of the Autumn Budget 2024, published on 30 October 2024, HC 295, over what period will £80 million be invested in corporate services across Government; and whether this investment will be in (a) IT, (b) human resources and (c) training.

The multi-year investment relates to the Matrix Shared Services Transformation programme, which plays an important part in driving a modern digital government, giving people a more satisfying experience and their time back in nine government departments. The £80m investment will take place in the year from April 25 to March 26 inclusive with the programme running through to FY27/28. The scope of the investment covers the implementation of a new system, the associated service transformation and the staff costs to prepare for and enact the changes for the first tranche of departments. With this investment we'll move closer to reaching our overall ambition - to transform shared services and technology to enable civil servants to focus on what they value most, serving the public.

Innovation and Technology, with reference to paragraph 4.94 of the Autumn Budget 2024, published on 30 October 2024, HC 295, how much he plans to spend over what time period on an extension of the Innovation Accelerators programme to continue to bolster high-potential innovation clusters in the Glasgow City Region, Greater Manchester and the West Midlands; and whether the programme will be extended to other places.

The Government will extend the Innovation Accelerators pilot for a year to continue to bolster high-potential innovation clusters in the Glasgow City Region, Greater Manchester and the West Midlands. We will announce further details on the allocation of the R&D budget in due course. Any future extension of the programme to other places will be subject to decisions taken through the second phase of the Spending Review.

Pursuant to the answer of 4 November 2024 to Question 11881 on Research Finance, if her Department will publish a tabular summary of Capital DEL allocated in the Budget to research and development by Department for 2024-25.

The departmental research and development (R&D) allocations for 2024-25 are set out in the table below. The numbers represent departmental plans as of Autumn Budget 2024, which reflect underspends identified through the Public Spending Audit 2024-25, including as a result of lower Horizon association costs than previously budgeted for.In 2025-26, the government has allocated £20.4 billion for investment in R&D – more than ever before which reflects its focus on growth. This includes the protection of £6.1 billion for core research.Department24-25 R&D (£m)DSIT£ 12,500m*DHSC£ 2,000m*MOD£ 1,800m*DESNZ£ 1,000m*DEFRA£ 400m*SIA£ 400m*FCDO£ 500m*DBT£ 300m*DfT£ 300m*DCMS£ 50m**DfE£ 50m**HO£ 30m**DWP£ 40m**MHCLG£ <10mFSA£ <10mMOJ£ <10mHMRC£ <10mHMT£ <10mTOTAL£ 19,524m *rounded to nearest £100m**rounded to nearest £10m Individual departments have been rounded to reflect the possibility that allocations can change as a result of in-year inter-department budget transfers.

With reference to paragraph 3.19 of Autumn Budget 2024, HC 295, whether the funding for growth-driving sectors will be allocated to the Department for Business and Trade.

This government is committed to delivering a modern Industrial Strategy. The Budget took a first step towards supporting our growth driving sectors, by providing funding in 2025-26 for life sciences manufacturing, allocated to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, and to automotive and aerospace manufacturing, allocated to the Department for Business and Trade. The Budget also confirmed long-term funding for these sectors - £975m for aerospace, over £2bn for automotive, and up to £520m for life sciences supporting the development of new technology, further details of this funding will be set out through the Spending Review and publication of the full Industrial Strategy in Spring 2025.

Innovation and Technology, what the evidential basis is for the calculation that the increase in his Department’s R&D budget to £13.9 billion is a rise by 8.5% in real terms.

DSIT’s capital budget in 2024/25 was £13.3bn, with £12.5bn allocated for investment in R&D. As outlined in the Autumn Budget 2024, DSIT’s R&D allocation has risen to £13.9bn in 2025/26, a £1.4bn cash-terms uplift.Using the latest OBR GDP deflator estimate for 2025/26 of 2.4 per cent (Autumn Budget 2024), this equates to a real-terms increase of 8.5%.

Innovation and Technology, with reference to Table 4.14 of Autumn Budget 2024, HC 295, published on 30 October 2024, whether the £14.7bn capital DEL funding settlement for the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology for 2025-26 includes the £2.7bn for association to EU research programmes.

DSIT has been allocated an R&D budget of £13.9 billion in 2025/26 within its capital DEL settlement. This includes funding for the full costs of association to EU research programmes, including Horizon Europe, and additional funding for the Horizon Guarantee.

With reference to Autumn Budget 2024, HC 295, published on 30 October 2024, if her Department will publish a tabular summary of Capital DEL allocated in the Budget to research and development by Department.

To fully harness the potential of the UK's excellent science base and to foster a dynamic investment economy, the Budget protects record levels of government research and development (R&D) investment with £20.4 billion allocated in 2025-26. This is allocated as per the table below. Department25-26 R&D*DSIT£13,936mDHSC£2,036mMOD£1,685mDESNZ£730mDEFRA£512mSIA£439mFCDO£335mDBT£329mDfT£154mDCMS£63mDfE£50mHO£45mDWP£39mMHCLG£9mFSA£8mMOJ£3mHMRC£2mHMT£1mTOTAL£20,376m

With reference to paragraph 3.19 of the Autumn Budget 2024, HC 295, published on 30 October 2024, if she will publish an allocation breakdown of the £20.4 billion spending on research and development for 2025-26.

To fully harness the potential of the UK's excellent science base and to foster a dynamic investment economy, the Budget protects record levels of government research and development (R&D) investment with £20.4 billion allocated in 2025-26. This is allocated as per the table below. Department25-26 R&D*DSIT£13,936mDHSC£2,036mMOD£1,685mDESNZ£730mDEFRA£512mSIA£439mFCDO£335mDBT£329mDfT£154mDCMS£63mDfE£50mHO£45mDWP£39mMHCLG£9mFSA£8mMOJ£3mHMRC£2mHMT£1mTOTAL£20,376m

Innovation and Technology, with reference to paragraph 3.70 of the Autumn Budget 2024, HC 295, published on 30 October 2024, what funding his Department has allocated to extend the Innovation Accelerators programme.

The Government will extend the Innovation Accelerators pilot for a year to continue to bolster high-potential innovation clusters in the Glasgow City Region, Greater Manchester and the West Midlands. We will announce further details on the allocation of the R&D budget in due course.