The Church of England, through the work of its central Communications team, has a presence on the majority of social media channels and is producing content for a variety of different audiences and age groups. It has developed a smart speaker app which is useable with ‘Alexa’, provides liturgical resources via the Daily Prayer App, and recorded services to enable people who may not be able to attend a church in person to still participate in worship.

In the month of May 2023, the most recent for which material is available, Church of England content received 8.6 million impressions and the audience using the materials grew by an additional 4,000 unique users. Nearly three-quarters of a million people engaged with materials developed for the Coronation and the Church of England received 40,000 enquiries from the public via its various social/digital media platforms.

The Department for Business and Trade promotes UK tech to American investors via dedicated officials resource in country, cultivating relationships with U.S. investors, such as, Google, In-Q-Tel and IBM, to promote UK tech start-ups, and facilitate introductions between UK founders and American VCs. We collaborated with the British Venture Capital Association, taking UK VCs across the U.S. to promote UK tech sectors and secure additional U.S. investment. We have established working groups to encourage U.S. investor entry into UK tech markets, stimulating collaboration, and the migration of skills and talent across several tech disciplines to the UK.

The Ministry of Justice sees the growth of lawtech and innovation in the delivery of legal services as vital for the continuing success of our world-renowned legal sector. To support this, the government has awarded £3 million of funding to CodeBase and Legal Geek to continue the LawtechUK programme from April 2023-March 2025. The funding will be used to deliver a programme of activities which will:

• increase innovation and the adoption of lawtech in the delivery of UK legal services

• support the growth of the lawtech sector in the UK

• enable English and Welsh law and the UK’s jurisdictions to become the foundation for emerging technologies.

LawtechUK was established in November 2019 and has helped the legal sector overcome legal, regulatory and cultural barriers to digital transformation. The Government provided £3 million of funding from November 2019 to March 2023 to deliver projects including a sandbox to help innovators fast track transformative ideas into products, educational resources, and a ground-breaking feasibility study for how technology can help small businesses resolve disputes.

The Department utilises existing datasets such as Higher Education Statistical Agency (HESA) and UK Research & Innovation diversity databases and the Labour Force Survey in the analysis of diversity of the UK Research, Development and Innovation workforce.

The Department also conducted the first ever survey of the UK Research and Innovation workforce in 2022, which included questions relating to gender, ethnicity, disability, age and views on inclusive culture. The report was published on 2^nd March 2023 here.

The Government provides support to the British Science Association to create events like British Science Week (BSW), which provides a popular and accessible opportunity for a range of audiences to get involved in science and related areas, and to run their CREST awards, the largest and longest running project-based science engagement programme in the UK.

In addition, the Government also supports the STEM Ambassadors programme which has over 30,000 volunteer scientists and engineers who go out to schools across the UK inspiring young people to take up study of STEM subjects and consider careers in research.

The Research and Development People and Culture Strategy sets out the actions that Government and the sector need to take to ensure the UK has the talented workforce it needs to be a global science superpower. This included a review of youth engagement (including the STEM Ambassadors programme), and its effects to encourage more diverse young people into research and innovation.

The Department supports a range of work to improve diversity and inclusion in UK science and technology education in schools. This includes funding an Inclusion in Schools project designed to increase the uptake of A level physics from pupils in underrepresented groups, including girls. It also includes funding the Isaac Physics programme, an online platform of GCSE and A level physics materials developed by Cambridge University designed to increase the numbers of pupils, particularly from typically underrepresented backgrounds, studying physics in higher education.

The Department is investing £84 million into the National Centre for Computing Education to drive increased participation in computer science and funding research programmes on how to improve gender balance in STEM subjects.

Positive progress has been made on uptake of STEM in further education which will help to improve diversity in the workplace.

With over 350 high-quality apprenticeship standards available in STEM sectors, apprenticeships are supporting people of all backgrounds to begin, or progress in, careers in science and technology. The number of STEM apprenticeship starts by women has increased year-on-year, with 14,110 starts in the 2021/22 academic year, an increase of 56% compared to the 9,020 starts in the 2017/18 academic year. The Department is promoting STEM apprenticeships in schools through our Apprenticeship Knowledge and Support programme and our Apprenticeships Diversity Champions Network of influential employers promotes best practices in recruiting and retaining people from all backgrounds in STEM apprenticeships.

The Department is also working with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to deliver new postgraduate AI and data science conversion courses to boost diversity in AI jobs. The conversion courses provide people with the opportunity to find new employment in AI and data science sectors, even for those who had no previous experience in the field. In the first year of the programme, 76% of the scholarships awarded have gone to women, 45% to black students, and 24% to students with disabilities. There will be an additional 2,000 scholarships to be delivered between 2023 and 2025.

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology will be the driving force behind Government’s commitment to growing the economy, improving the lives of everyone in the UK through stronger growth, better jobs and new discoveries that advance the health and prosperity of society, whilst ensuring users are protected from harm online.

Last year, the Government published the UK’s Digital Strategy which outlines our plan to grow the digital economy and create more high-skilled, high wage jobs by cementing the UK as a Science and Tech superpower.

The Government is increasing publicly funded and economy-wide R&D; this spending will increase £20 billion per annum by 2024/25, supporting the creation of additional jobs in high-tech sectors. We are also funding programmes aimed at boosting the growth of innovative tech start-ups and scale-ups in all corners of the country.

In order to create new jobs in high-tech sectors we need to address industry’s current and future demand for digital and other high-tech skills. We are leading work across Government and with industry to grow the digital workforce, tackle the digital skills gap and support a diverse range of people into digital roles. Our work is focusing on broadening and deepening the pool of talent. The Digital Skills Council convenes stakeholders from across the sector to deliver industry led action on driving the growth of the digital workforce, including widening the skills pipelines.

The £12.9 million Digital Growth Grant builds on more than £42.2 million invested by the government to support tech start-ups and scaleups. The grant will fund targeted support programmes, delivered by Barclays Eagle Labs, to help tech businesses across the country grow and create jobs. Combined investment from Government and Eagle Labs will benefit over 22,000 businesses in the next two years, with at least 80% based outside London.Combined investment

We recognise the importance of improving the diversity of the digital workforce and have supported the Tech Talent Charter since 2016. The Tech Talent Charter is helping to improve the diversity of the digital workforce by improving reporting on diversity statistics and fostering collaboration to create a more diverse tech workforce.

The Department is clear that all pupils should be taught a broad and balanced curriculum. The best schools combine creative and technical subjects with core academic subjects, and the Department is committed to ensuring that all pupils have access to both.

The Department believes the best way to provide this academic core at Key Stage 4 is by encouraging most pupils to study the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) suite of subjects, which are English language and literature, Mathematics, the sciences, geography or history, and a modern or ancient language. The EBacc was designed to be limited in size to allow pupils time to study other subjects.

Two of our six headline measures, Progress 8 and Attainment 8, measure success in eight subjects, including English and Mathematics, three other EBacc subjects and three ‘open’ subjects. The latter provides scope for pupils to study any GCSE subjects or any other approved, high value qualifications.

These include GCSEs in non-EBacc subjects, such as art and design, drama, music, design and technology, and food preparation and nutrition. They also include a wide range of technical awards from a list approved by the Department, including Level 1 and 2 qualifications that equip pupils with applied knowledge and practical skills not usually acquired through general education.

The Department has made no specific assessment in relation to the impact of accountability measures on the uptake of GCSEs in creative or technical subjects. In response to the consultation on the EBacc, the Government published a report in 2017 on trends in arts subjects up to 2015/16 where EBacc entry had increased. At that time, the report showed little correlation between the change in EBacc entry and the change in the percentage of pupils entering at least one arts qualification in state funded mainstream schools.

The report can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/trends-in-arts-subjects-in-schools-with-increased-ebacc-entry.

Since 2015/16, there may be additional impacts of more recent accountability policies on the uptake of a range of GCSEs, which have not been captured. The Department regularly publishes entry statistics for GCSEs and technical awards. Over the past four years, the proportion of Key Stage 4 pupils in state funded schools taking at least one arts GCSE between 2018/19 and 2021/22 has decreased from 44.5% to 42.0%. Over the same period the percentage taking at least one arts qualification (GCSE or technical award) has increased from 52.3% to 52.4%.

We are proud that the UK’s start up and scale up tech ecosystem was recently valued at over £1 trillion and that the UK is only the third country in the world to have a tech sector reach this valuation. We are committed to ensuring the benefits and growth of the tech sector are felt in all corners of the country.

We are supporting businesses across the UK through investment. The £12 million Digital Growth Grant will continue to support companies across the UK to access finance and business advice through tailored growth programmes and events. In addition, the £2.6 billion UKSPF fund encourages areas across the UK to consider interventions to support and grow their local tech ecosystems.

Tailored support and localised interventions will be important to successful economic growth across the regions. We published a Regional Tech Ecosystems report, which identified several regions as digital and tech growth hubs across the UK and aims to better understand the drivers of growth at a local level.

Government engagement with the tech community is one of the key levers used to understand the needs of the sector, whilst also promoting the sector's success. Ministers engage frequently with the sector through roundtable discussions and bilaterals to better understand the challenges and opportunities facing growth, such as those conducted whilst developing our Digital Strategy. From a promotional perspective, Ministers often proactively engage with regional tech events, such as Birmingham Tech Week, and utilise the Department’s convening power to highlight the importance of regional investment. The department’s communication strategies further champion the regional ecosystems through promotion of regional success stories to a national and international audience.

The Cabinet Office’s Public Sector Fraud Authority (PSFA) is investing in new technologies that will increasingly use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities to detect and prevent fraud. This includes the use of predictive analytics, a field of AI, that uses supervised machine learning techniques to predict the likelihood of fraud within a given area of spending.

For example a recent Cabinet Office contract award to build a Single Network Analytics Platform for the public sector, features AI and ML capabilities. This platform is for use by public bodies to access data that will help them identify fraud and actors who present a threat.

The PSFA’s approach is to ‘test and learn’ and to carefully apply AI and ML where appropriate, each time proving its merits, and then expanding where a viable use case exists.

The UK’s start up and scale up tech ecosystem was recently valued at over £1 trillion. The UK is only the third country in the world to have a tech sector reach this valuation. We are committed to ensuring the benefits and growth of the tech sector are felt in all corners of the country. Last year we published DCMS’ Regional Tech Ecosystems report, which aims to better understand the drivers of growth at a local level.

Our Department’s Regional GVA official statistics show that the tech sector contributed over £7.5 billion to the West Midlands’ economy in 2019 in real terms (approx. 5.3% of the region’s GVA). The tech sector has consistently provided the largest contribution out of all of DCMS’ sectors to the West Midlands economy. The region's tech ecosystem was recently valued at an impressive £15.3 billion - up from £11.5 billion in 2021. Between April 2021 - March 2022, there were 111,000 filled jobs in the West Midlands’ tech sector, representing almost 4% of all filled jobs in the region.

We are making investments in our Digital Infrastructure to drive growth and innovation at a local level. Last month my Department announced that the world-class, UK Telecommunications Laboratory, will be opening in the metropolitan borough of Solihull. The laboratory will provide a safe environment for security experts to test new and existing software and equipment, using groundbreaking technology. This will keep our public telecommunications networks secure, and support incumbent and new supplier entrants to the market. Importantly, in close collaboration with academia and industry, this national capability will drive the growth of skills in the key technical areas of telecoms and cyber security across Solihull and the country.

These themes are at the heart of our Future of Mobility: Urban Strategy. This document sets out the principles that we will implement to ensure we maximise the benefits from new transport technologies. It also sets out our plans to review laws regarding new forms of transport, to invest alongside industry in innovative vehicle technologies, and to establish Future of Mobility Zones to shape the way in which these technologies emerge.

The Digital Prisons Programme was established to pilot technology in prisons so that an assessment could be made as to whether technology could lead to safer and more effective prisons.

Although this programme has now closed, the In-Cell Telephony Project will continue rollout of in-cell telephones and offender self-service kiosks. By March 2020, 50 prisons will have in-cell phones and 11 prisons will have self-service kiosks. In-cell telephones will provide a crucial means of allowing prisoners to build and maintain family relationships, something we know is fundamental to their rehabilitation.

Work is also currently underway to look at forming the future strategy for technology in prisons and the Ministry of Justice is conducting research to evaluate the benefits of the technology already deployed. The evaluation report is intended for publication in 2019.

The Government’s Loneliness Strategy stated that government would work with businesses to stimulate innovative solutions to loneliness across all ages, backgrounds and communities. To deliver on this commitment, government is engaging with tech businesses to explore what more can be done. For example, together with the Minister for Digital & Creative Industries, I recently hosted a roundtable with tech businesses focused on tackling loneliness using tech. The government is investing £1m in a Tech for Good Challenge Prize to further stimulate the capability of tech businesses to tackle social isolation. In April, DCMS started work with Nesta's Challenge Prize Centre to design the competition with the formal call for participants tentatively scheduled for June 2019. As part of the research and design of the project, DCMS is working closely with Buddy Hub, Digital Health and Care Alliance, No Isolation and Vodafone, who have publicly stated their aims and achievements in tackling loneliness.

In November 2017, we launched a £20 million, three year GovTech Catalyst to fund private sector innovators to solve public-sector challenges. To date, the programme has identified and appointed 15 challenge winners. It is now seeking to test these concepts and provide a route to market for the viable solutions.

We will shortly launch the Innovation Strategy, outlining a vision for how departments can build on those foundations to make the most of the opportunities, while understanding the risks and challenges, offered by the application of emerging technologies in public services.

The Government is fully committed to the continuing success of the automotive sector and supports the development of future car technologies through a variety of mechanisms depending on the technology and stage of development. The most significant sources of funding are set out in the following table:

In addition the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council has invested £127M in research relevant to the automotive sector since FY 13/14.

In the last Spending Review my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer confirmed Government funding for the Advanced Propulsion Centre out to 2023 and announced additional support for automotive R&D of £225m from 2023 to 2026.