In March,the Government published the Science and Technology Framework. This details our strategic vision for how to make the UK a science and technology superpower by 2030.

The Framework sets out the steps required to attract investment, grow UK companies, innovate successfully and safely, and deploy our world class science and technology research base for good.

We have already announced investment of £900million in exascale computing, £2.5billion over 10 years in quantum technologies and a £1billion semiconductor strategy.

My hon. Friend has a formidable reputation himself in championing, and from having worked in, that area. We are increasing investment in further education and skills by £3.8 billion over the course of this Parliament, because we need technicians to access high-quality training.

The information requested is not currently available. However, data is being collated across the National Health Service Genomic Laboratory Hubs to assess the capability and expertise of the workforce. We do not have a confirmed completion date for the data collection at this stage.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Members for North Devon (Selaine Saxby), to Question 900383, and Newcastle Under-Lyme (Aaron Bell), to Question 900390, during Defence Oral Questions on 24 May 2021.

Northern Ireland continues to benefit from the decision taken by this Government to build a stronger economy across the whole of the United Kingdom. Of particular importance, is the Tech Sector, which provides highly skilled and rewarding jobs, as well as boosting innovation.

The UK Government has announced economic investments of over £600m through City and Growth Deals and other initiatives that cover all 11 councils in Northern Ireland. This provides an excellent opportunity for each to enrich their Tech Sector capabilities, including digital and R&D innovations; and clearly demonstrates the Government’s continued support for the development of skills provision and growth in this innovative sector.

I recently visited the north-west of England and saw at first hand the enterprising and enthusiastic spirit of SMEs in the region. I am happy to confirm that, in the 2018 Budget, I backed locally led innovation by doubling the strength in places fund to £235 million. I also committed an additional £5 million to encourage proposals for new university enterprise zones, following a successful pilot scheme that invested £15 million in Liverpool. The made smarter pilot in the north-west is helping manufacturers to adopt digital technologies, and together these measures will ensure that businesses in the north-west can take the lead in the fourth industrial revolution.

The Government set out in the 25 Year Environment Plan our commitment to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste by the end of 2042; my rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs set out in our Resource and Waste Strategy how we will do this. These proposals are subject to consultation, which will close on 13 May.

The UK is building a sustainable plastics industry through research and innovation. The Department is working through UKRI and closely with industry is providing up to £60 million through the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund to establish the UK as the world’s leading innovator in smart sustainable plastic packaging, and gathering international experts to tackle marine plastic waste through the Commonwealth Marine Plastics Research and Innovation Framework. These activities will ensure that we produce, consume and treat plastics sustainably.

The Government is working with Ofgem, the energy regulator, on various initiatives to improve data quality and data access in order to enable the wider use of new technologies in the energy market. A key part of this is midata in energy intervention, which will provide customers a secure way to quickly and easily give accredited third parties access to their energy data; encouraging consumer engagement and driving market innovation and competition. The future energy retail market review is looking at measures to reduce barriers to innovation and open up the market to new types of propositions.

In addition, BEIS has recently launched the Smart Energy Savings (SENS) competition which will provide up to £4.4m of funding to support the development and trialling of products and services that use smart meter data to help consumers manage their energy use.

The introduction of charges is intended to create a sustainable funding model for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) technology appraisal and highly specialised technologies programmes that better positions it to adapt to future changes in the life sciences sector. The Government carried out a public consultation on the introduction of charges and took full account of the comments received in deciding to proceed. The Government response to the consultation and the Impact Assessment, published alongside the regulations, assess the impact of the introduction of charging on all relevant stakeholders, including the life sciences industry and NICE. As explained in the Government response and Impact Assessment, small companies whose products are undergoing assessment will benefit from a 75% discount, which is intended to minimise barriers to the participation of small companies. The Government response is available at the following link:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/762725/government-response-to-nice-recommendations-consultation.pdf

The Impact Assessment at is available at the following link:

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukia/2018/171/pdfs/ukia_20180171_en.pdf

We lead Europe in developing a sustainable tech ecosystem. Tech Nation’s latest release in 2018 shows that the UK attracted more venture capital investment than anywhere else in Europe, with $7.9 billion in funding from investors, ahead of Germany, France and Israel. We announced £1 billion for the artificial intelligence sector alone in last year’s sector deal, which will help to unlock further opportunities for AI investment in the UK.

The industrial challenge’s grand challenge on ageing focuses on our world-leading pharmaceutical and health companies. We have a dedicated team in Tel Aviv actively promoting co-operation between UK and Israeli companies, and we have an established UK-Israel tech hub to enhance those partnerships between British companies and Israeli technology innovators.

Our vision for how technology and innovation can be harnessed to transform health and care was set out in the paper, ‘The Future of Healthcare: Our Vision for Digital, Data and Technology in Health and Care’, published on 17 October 2018, and is at the heart of the NHS Long Term Plan published last week. The Life Sciences Sector Deal 2, published in December 2018 just over a year after the first, also contains complementary measures to deliver on these aims. The ambitious Sector Deals set out how government and the sector will work closely together and invest to keep the United Kingdom at the forefront of life sciences, delivering both for the economy and UK patients.

By helping all places to access the benefits of technological progress and reach their full potential, we can drive growth at national level. Since autumn 2016, the Government have announced an additional £7 billion for science and innovation—an increase of about 20% to total Government R&D spending by 2021.

The Government are expanding Tech City’s reach across the UK, creating Tech Nation by investing £21 million over four years to help people grow digital businesses. That includes a large-scale CityVerve smart city demonstrator in Manchester, which demonstrates how the internet of things, technologies and services can improve local services in transport, energy, health and culture.