Written question asked by Diana Johnson (Labour) on Wednesday, 20 July 2016, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 5 September 2016. It was answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone (Conservative) on Tuesday, 13 September 2016 on behalf of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

CERN

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what his policy is on future British involvement in the European Organization for Nuclear Research and the CERN research facility.

Answer: The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and the European Space Agency (ESA) are separate organisations from the European Union and thus the UK’s memberships of CERN or ESA are not dependent on its EU membership. The UK will continue to play a leading role in major non-EU research collaborations, including CERN and ESA. In July we confirmed the UK’s application to become a full member of a major new particle accelerator, the European Spallation Source in Sweden.

Secondary information