Budget Resolutions — House of Commons, 2021-10-27
Topic: Technology
Gregory David Clark (Independent, Unknown): It is a pleasure to follow my right hon. Friend the Member for Sutton Coldfield (Mr Mitchell). I do not know whether his offer to the Chancellor has advanced or impeded his prospects in the future, but I am sure that he will look forward to the dinner none the less No one can be in any doubt about the central importance of science, innovation and technology to the future wellbeing and prosperity not just of this country, but of every country around the world. Yesterday, my Committee —the Science and Technology Committee—was privileged to hear from Professor Sir Andrew Pollard who, with Dame Sarah Gilbert, was one of the scientists who developed the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine against covid. Their work is saving millions of lives in this country and around the world, and allowing life here and around the world to resume. The vaccine would not have been possible had it not been built on sustained research conducted by world-class scientists in Britain over many years. It is not just in vaccine development, but in almost every field of human endeavour that research and science are transforming the world, from battery technology and energy storage, as we move to net zero, to the role that satellites play in monitoring agricultural matters from space to get the best crop yields around the world At this most exciting and transformational time for science and technology since the first industrial revolution forged in Britain, it is obvious that our future must be even more science and innovation focused than ever In the industrial strategy that we launched in 2017, the then Prime Minister and I committed the UK to invest 2.4% of our GDP in research and development within a decade—the OECD average—and then to move on to 3% thereafter. We increased the public science budget from £9 billion to £12 billion a year by 2020—then the biggest ever increase. I mention this to underline the remarkable fact that this Budget will increase the national investment from public funds in research and development not from £9 billion to £12 billion, but to £20 billion a year by 2024-25 However, the Government had previously committed in the manifesto to invest £22 billion by that year, so, clearly, it is a source of regret that the Chancellor has not been able to keep that commitment. Having said that, had the original commitment been to £20 billion by 2024-25, it would still have been regarded as a remarkable transformation in our science funding and warmly welcomed. None the less, there is a cost to commitments that are not met in terms of the confidence of investors, who are investing alongside the Government Having said that, the Committee and the science community were very concerned that there might be a stop-start approach to meeting this commitment because of the current fiscal difficulties, with future increases deferred until later in the Parliament and therefore more uncertain. Witnesses to my Committee talked about the importance of a sustained increase in funding rather than famine first and feast later. I welcome very strongly the fact that the increases are not just in the later years, but that there is steady progress throughout the spending review period that will give great confidence to the science community. In fact, the later increases to get to £22 billion are somewhat less than the early increases that are being made, so I hope that it might prove possible in future Budgets to find the £2 billion required to get to the target earlier than 2026-27.