Written questions by Baldwin.

Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the UK–India Free Trade Agreement on his Department.

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) worked closely with the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) and other relevant departments to ensure that the UK–India Free Trade Agreement (FTA) supports the UK’s strategic objectives in science, technology, and innovation. The FTA will complement and bolster ongoing cooperation with India on science and technology through the Science and Innovation Council and the Technology Security Initiative.The FTA includes an innovation chapter, which will allow the UK and India to enhance existing collaboration in research and development. The digital trade chapter will also drive innovation and support emerging technologies through UK-India collaboration, maximising the benefits to both, including through trade. The telecommunications chapter will support fair competition, market access, and regulatory cooperation within the telecommunications sector. A full impact assessment of the UK-India Free Trade Agreement will be published at signature.

Innovation and Technology, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of the UK-US trade deal on the (a) science and (b) technology sectors.

The UK-US Economic Prosperity Deal (EPD) includes a number of provisions that will in future benefit UK science and technology sectors. These include, for example, provisions on future negotiations on significantly preferential tariff treatment for pharmaceutical products, and an ambitious set of digital trade provisions.Given detailed negotiations on these provisions have not yet concluded, it is not possible to undertake an impact assessment at this point.As the Prime Minister has said, the Economic Prosperity Deal “opens the way to a future UK-US technology partnership through which our science-rich nations will collaborate in key areas of advanced technology”.

Innovation and Technology, whether their Department offers its staff shared parental leave from their first working day.

To be eligible for shared parental leave in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, each parent must have at least 26 weeks continuous employment with their respective employer by the end of the 15th week before the expected week of childbirth or adoption matching date. They must also still be working for the same respective employer (for Civil Servants continuous service applies to other Civil Service employers) when they intend to take the leave.Some employees could qualify for shared parental leave on their first day of service where they have built up qualifying service in another Civil Service organisation.As with any changes to employment legislation, internal policies and processes will be updated as appropriate in preparation for when the Employment Rights Bill 2024 comes into effect.

Innovation and Technology, what recent progress has been made by Building Digital UK on the roll-out of Project Gigabit in West Worcestershire; and how many additional premises will be connected to full fibre broadband in that constituency by the end of 2025.

According to the independent website Thinkbroadband.com, 71% of premises in the West Worcestershire constituency can access a gigabit-capable broadband connection. As part of Project Gigabit, we are putting in place a contract to improve this coverage further. We plan to announce the details of this contract, including how many premises in Worcestershire will be in line to benefit, in early 2025.Once the contract is in place, the supplier will conduct survey and planning work to determine when premises in Worcestershire will receive a gigabit-capable connection. We anticipate that build will commence in 2025 and complete by 2030.