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227253

registered interest
date	13/03/2015
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
hansard heading	Patents
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what recent steps he has taken to reform statute pertaining to patent.
tabling member constituency	Windsor
tabling member printed	Adam Afriyie
uin	227504
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/03/2015 answer text <p /> <p>On 10 June 2014 the Government launched a Technical Review and Call for Evidence on the Secondary Legislation Implementing the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court and EU Regulations Establishing the Unitary Patent. On 1 October 2014 the Legislative Reform (Patents) Order 2014 and changes to patent law in the Intellectual Property Act 2014, and consequential amendments to the Patents Rules 2007, came into force. The details of these changes are available at <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/1-october-2014-changes-to-design-and-patent-law" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/1-october-2014-changes-to-design-and-patent-law</a>. On 26 February 2015 the Government issued its response to the Law Commission’s report on the law relating to the making of groundless threats to bring proceedings for infringement of patents, trade marks and design rights.</p> answering member constituency Wantage answering member printed Mr Edward Vaizey question first answered 19/03/2015 16:46:13 answering member 1580 label Biography information for Lord Vaizey of Didcot
tabling member	1586 label Biography information for Adam Afriyie

227104

registered interest
date	12/03/2015
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
hansard heading	Cybersecurity
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of (a) the value of and (b) the number of jobs provided by the cyber-security industry in the UK in the last five years.
tabling member constituency	Windsor
tabling member printed	Adam Afriyie
uin	227395
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/03/2015 answer text <p /> <p>Official statistics for the cyber security sector have been available since 2013. They indicate that in 2013 (the latest figures currently available) the UK cyber security sector was worth over £6 billion and employed around 40,000 people.</p><p> </p><p>The Government is committed to the continued development of the cyber security sector, which is why we established the Cyber Growth Partnership as the primary vehicle for joint industry–Government initiatives to grow a vibrant sector, both domestically and in overseas markets.</p> answering member constituency Wantage answering member printed Mr Edward Vaizey question first answered 19/03/2015 16:08:43 answering member 1580 label Biography information for Lord Vaizey of Didcot
tabling member	1586 label Biography information for Adam Afriyie

155723

registered interest
date	17/11/2014
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
hansard heading	New Businesses: Windsor
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps the Government has taken to support disabled people in Windsor constituency who want to start their own business.
tabling member constituency	Windsor
tabling member printed	Adam Afriyie
uin	214744
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/11/2014 answer text <p>We are continuing to work hard to provide the right support to make life easier for everyone who wants to start their own business, including disabled people.</p><p> </p><p><a href="http://www.greatbusiness.gov.uk/" target="_blank">www.greatbusiness.gov.uk</a> provides support and advice for anyone trying to grow a business as well as for entrepreneurs starting out. This includes a 'Business Finance and Support Finder' that can provide a customised source of government backed support and finance for business. In addition to on-line support, the Business Support Helpline (0300 456 3565) is available to provide a quick response on queries about starting a business, or a personalised and in-depth advice service for more complex needs. For those looking for start-up finance and advice there are Start-Up Loans: 10 loans worth a total of £47,500 have been drawn down in Windsor to date.</p><p> </p><p>Finally, the New Enterprise Allowance helps people claiming certain out of work benefits to start up their own business. As of June 2014, 10,040 disabled people (from a total of 53,350) had started a new business with the help of the NEA.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency West Suffolk answering member printed Matthew Hancock question first answered 24/11/2014 15:08:21 answering member 4070 label Biography information for Matt Hancock
tabling member	1586 label Biography information for Adam Afriyie

156126

registered interest
date	17/11/2014
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
hansard heading	ICT
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he has taken to encourage growth of the big data industry in the UK; and if he will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Windsor
tabling member printed	Adam Afriyie
uin	214448
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/11/2014 answer text <p>The Government has identified big data as one of the ‘eight great technologies’ that will propel the UK’s future economic growth. Since 2010, the Government has made a series of strategic investments to support the growth of the big data industry in the UK. These include:</p><p> </p><p>- a £159 million investment programme in the UK’s high performance computing and networks infrastructure announced in 2011.</p><p> </p><p>- £189 million investment announced in 2012 to support a programme of big data and energy-efficient computing projects across the UK co-ordinated by the Economic and Social Research Council.</p><p> </p><p>- £10.7 million announced in December 2013 to create a new Higgs Centre for Innovation at the UK Astronomy Technology Centre in Edinburgh that will focus on big data and space technologies.</p><p> </p><p>- £42 million announced in March 2014 to establish a world-leading Alan Turing Institute, which will be established in 2015 to research the analysis and application of big data.</p><p> </p><p>- Investment of over £50 million to establish the Digital Catapult, based in London, which will bring researchers and business together to accelerate new innovative products to market.</p><p> </p><p>On 31 October 2013, the Government also published ‘Seizing the Data Opportunity: a strategy for UK data capability’, which examines the UK’s capability to make best use of all data including big data, public sector held data, research data, and data collected by companies. The strategy was developed in partnership with industry to place the UK at the forefront of extracting knowledge and value from data.</p><p> </p><p>Since the publication of the strategy, the Government has introduced new legislation on copyright exceptions in June 2014 to enable text and data-mining for non-commercial purpose, and has developed new UK Trade &amp; Industry marketing material to attract increased overseas investment and custom to the UK data centre market.</p> answering member constituency Wantage answering member printed Mr Edward Vaizey question first answered 24/11/2014 10:42:59 answering member 1580 label Biography information for Lord Vaizey of Didcot
tabling member	1586 label Biography information for Adam Afriyie

156127

registered interest
date	17/11/2014
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
hansard heading	Financial Services: ICT
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what recent assessment he has made of the value of the financial technology sector to the economy.
tabling member constituency	Windsor
tabling member printed	Adam Afriyie
uin	214449
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/11/2014 answer text <p>Financial technology is not separately identified within Official Statistics and there is at present no workable definition to identify business activity in this area from other financial or computer and information services. Therefore the employment and financial contribution of these specific activities cannot easily be assessed.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency West Suffolk answering member printed Matthew Hancock question first answered 25/11/2014 10:55:54 answering member 4070 label Biography information for Matt Hancock
tabling member	1586 label Biography information for Adam Afriyie

100100

registered interest
date	21/10/2014
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
hansard heading	Innovation
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the effect of the EU Precautionary Principle on the scale of scientific innovation in the UK.
tabling member constituency	Windsor
tabling member printed	Adam Afriyie
uin	211393
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 30/10/2014 answer text <p>The Department has made no systematic assessment of the effect of the precautionary principle on scientific innovation in the UK.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Tunbridge Wells answering member printed Greg Clark question first answered 30/10/2014 16:14:04 answering member 1578 label Biography information for Greg Clark
tabling member	1586 label Biography information for Adam Afriyie

89423

registered interest
date	29/08/2014
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
hansard heading	Spaceflight
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what recent steps he has taken to encourage the growth of a space tourism industry in the the UK.
tabling member constituency	Windsor
tabling member printed	Adam Afriyie
uin	207535
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/09/2014 answer text <p>The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Robert Goodwill) announced at the Farnborough International Air show in July 2014 the Government's commitment to establish a spaceport in the UK by 2018. The Government is working to ensure that sub-orbital space participant and science flights are operated from this space port.</p> answering member constituency Tunbridge Wells answering member printed Greg Clark question first answered 08/09/2014 14:00:42 answering member 1578 label Biography information for Greg Clark
tabling member	1586 label Biography information for Adam Afriyie

64638

registered interest
date	30/06/2014
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
hansard heading	Business: Registration
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the effect of online business registration on registration rates; and if he will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Windsor
tabling member printed	Adam Afriyie
uin	202986
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/07/2014 answer text <p>There is no register covering all businesses in the UK. The Registrar of Companies registers a subset of businesses and provides online registration for those businesses that register as companies or limited liability partnerships. HMRC registers sole traders for tax purposes.</p><p>Online incorporation via software filing agents was introduced in July 2001, followed in April 2010 by the launch of the Citizen Incorporation service via Companies House Webfiling. The number of companies on the register has almost doubled, from 1.66 million at the end of March 2001 to 3.25 million at March 2014. In the financial year 2013/14, 98% of all new companies were incorporated electronically.</p><p>Companies House has carried out several studies to identify the main factors contributing to the increasing trend for company incorporations. This is attributed to a number of combined factors, such as the benefits of limited liability, changes to tax legislation and developments in the wider UK economy. There is no indication that the electronic enablement of company registration in itself has acted as a direct driver for the increase in new company registration rates, as just one of the methods the Government has used to help reduce the burden on business and the costs of running a company. This in turn has helped to make the UK one of the best places to set up and run a company.</p><p>Electronic services have also enabled Companies House to absorb the significant additional workload resulting from the growing register, make organisational efficiency savings and pass these efficiencies on to customers in the form of lower fees. For incorporation, the UK charges some of the lowest fees in the World.</p> answering member constituency Sevenoaks answering member printed Michael Fallon question first answered 07/07/2014 16:05:48 answering member 88 label Biography information for Sir Michael Fallon
tabling member	1586 label Biography information for Adam Afriyie

61452

registered interest
date	11/06/2014
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
hansard heading	Space Technology
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the UK Space Agency in promoting the UK space industry; and if he will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Windsor
tabling member printed	Adam Afriyie
uin	200304
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/06/2014 answer text <p>The UK Space Agency (UKSA) was created in April 2011 to lead and foster the growing UK space sector. It does so through funding and delivery of civil space projects and downstream space related activities, developing space policy including advice to Ministers and regulating UK space activities to meet international obligations.</p><p>The UKSA formally tests its performance against such objectives in a number ways and includes amongst these a measure of its effectiveness in promoting the UK space industry. This is primarily through an independent bi-annual “Size and Health” survey of the UK industrial sector which assesses the growth of the UK space economy. The Agency also monitors contracts that flow back to UK industry from Agency-targeted subscriptions to the European Space Agency as well as monitoring where Agency-supported research and development work has positioned UK industry for success in future operational contracts. More recently the Agency has extended its role in actively supporting and promoting UK industrial exports of both satellite and emerging space-related data services.</p><p>All objective measures from these activities point to a growing success story for our space industry. Indeed it is one of our economy's fastest growing sectors, with an average growth rate of almost 7.5%, and it has ambitions to increase its annual turnover to £40 billion by 2030. The role of the Agency in this development is significant and it has developed close relationships with industry.</p><p>The Size and Health survey due to be published in autumn 2014 is expected to show that the Space Economy has continued to grow between 2011 and 2013.</p><p>Its coordination of a business-driven industrial space policy has provided leadership for the UK industrial community (acknowledged by the UK space Innovation and Growth Strategy published in 2013) and this has been recognised by the Parliamentary Select Committee report into the UKSA which was published in October 2013.</p><p>The Agency serves as an effective platform to raise awareness of the successes of the UK space sector. BIS and Agency officials continue to evaluate its success in promoting that work using Government Communications Service best practice.</p><p>A further key measure of success is the increasing number of overseas space companies choosing to invest in the UK and so growing the UK's wider space capability and economic development.</p> answering member constituency Havant answering member printed Mr David Willetts question first answered 18/06/2014 15:01:36 answering member 53 label Biography information for Lord Willetts
tabling member	1586 label Biography information for Adam Afriyie

61454

registered interest
date	11/06/2014
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
hansard heading	Space Technology
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the return on public investment in the UK Space Agency; and if he will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Windsor
tabling member printed	Adam Afriyie
uin	200305
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/06/2014 answer text <p>The return on investment delivered by the UK Space Agency (UKSA) is subject to biennial assessment as part of the Agency survey of the size and health of the space industry. Results of the 2014 survey are due to be published in the autumn of 2014, though I hope to be in a position to announce headline figures such as turnover and employment numbers at the Farnborough Airshow in July 2014.</p><p>The European Space Agency (ESA) is the primary route for Government R&amp;D space investment. Several economic analyses of investment impact have been undertaken, drawn together in BIS Economics Paper No3 . The Agency's biennial survey of the size and health of the UK space industry has shown growth from £3.4Bn turnover in 1999/2000 to £9.5Bn in 2011, reflecting the results of sustained investment as well as the growth of the market.</p><p>UKSA investment through the European Space Agency (ESA) in the last five years is as follows:</p><p>2009/10: £242.8m</p><p>2010/11: £231.1m</p><p>2011/12: £232.0m</p><p>2012/13: £207.6m</p><p>2013/14: £267.5m</p><p>In addition, national expenditure averaging £20M a year has been invested within the UK to build and operate scientific instruments carried on ESA spacecraft. The funding to ESA has been used to contribute to missions and technology in the fields of space science and exploration, Earth observation for science and applications, telecommunications and broadband delivery, access to microgravity facilities for life and physical sciences, space weather, navigation technologies, human spaceflight and weather monitoring. As well as resulting expenditure in the UK due to the <em>juste retour</em> principle, wider benefits have accrued in economic growth; new scientific knowledge and improved delivery of public services.</p> answering member constituency Havant answering member printed Mr David Willetts question first answered 18/06/2014 15:57:10 answering member 53 label Biography information for Lord Willetts
tabling member	1586 label Biography information for Adam Afriyie