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419069

	registered interest
	date	16/09/2015
	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	Blockchain
	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 potential benefits to the UK economy of blockchain technology.
	tabling member constituency	Windsor
	tabling member printed	Adam Afriyie
	uin	10493
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/10/2015 answer text <p>The Government Office for Science is conducting a review of distributed ledger technology, which encompasses Blockchain technology, to highlight the potential benefits of distributed ledgers to the delivery of public services, and to help government identify and remove roadblocks to their safe and effective use.</p><p>The review is being conducted by a panel of experts drawn from academia, business and government under the direction of the Government Chief Scientific Adviser. Their findings and recommendations will be published in a report this autumn.</p> answering member constituency Orpington answering member printed Joseph Johnson question first answered 14/10/2015 11:46:58 answering member 4039 label Biography information for Lord Johnson of Marylebone
	tabling member	1586 label Biography information for Adam Afriyie

512919

	registered interest
	date	14/04/2016
	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	Artificial Intelligence
	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 is taking to support research into and development of machine learning.
	tabling member constituency	Windsor
	tabling member printed	Adam Afriyie
	uin	33949
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/04/2016 answer text <p>The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills supports the research and development of machine learning through the Research Councils, for example the current Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council portfolio contains nearly 150 research and training grants involving aspects of artificial intelligence.</p><p>The Science and Technology Facilities Council’s Hartree Centre uses high performance computing combined with big data analytics, cognitive computing and visualisation techniques to collaborate with industry and research partners. The latest government investment of £113 million at Hartree in a cognitive and data centric computing centre (announced in the 2014 Autumn Statement) has attracted inward investment from IBM and other hi-tech industry exceeding £200 million.</p><p>Research Councils also support existing machine learning applications, for example the Medical Research Council support programmes which involve the use of machine learning tools for image analysis and in analysing and predicting risk of Serious Adverse Events for hospital patients.</p><p>The Arts and Humanities Research Council also support aspects of research and development on machine learning relating to its importance within the rapidly emerging field of the digital humanities and issues relating to ethical, philosophical, legal and historical perspectives of machine learning and human-computer interactions.</p> answering member constituency Orpington answering member printed Joseph Johnson question first answered 20/04/2016 14:56:00 answering member 4039 label Biography information for Lord Johnson of Marylebone
	tabling member	1586 label Biography information for Adam Afriyie

523376

	registered interest
	date	07/06/2016
	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 Debris
	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 is taking to promote action to remove space debris.
	tabling member constituency	Windsor
	tabling member printed	Adam Afriyie
	uin	39726
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/06/2016 answer text <p>The United Kingdom, through the UK Space Agency (UKSA), is one of the thirteen members of the Inter-Agency Debris Coordination (IADC) Committee, which considers the risks posed by space debris. Our national experts, along with more than a hundred experts from other agencies including NASA, met at Harwell in March 2016 for the annual IADC meeting to discuss many issues, including the need for the removal of space debris from orbit, and how that could best be accomplished.</p><p>The UK is leading studies in partnership with other national agencies to model the future space environment and identify the most effective ways of mitigating the future hazard of space debris.</p><p>UKSA is working with its international partners in technical forums such as the IADC to develop scientific consensus on the best way to manage the hazard posed by debris, such as how many objects might need to be removed, and from where. UKSA is also working to build political consensus within UN forums such as the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space to enable such missions to go ahead with appropriate supervision and support from the international community. This includes developing appropriate regulatory/oversight frameworks within the UK’s Outer Space Act which allow such technologies to be tested and demonstrated safely in the increasingly congested and contested space environment.</p> answering member constituency Orpington answering member printed Joseph Johnson question first answered 15/06/2016 16:57:40 answering member 4039 label Biography information for Lord Johnson of Marylebone
	tabling member	1586 label Biography information for Adam Afriyie

420935

	registered interest
	date	13/10/2015
	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	Research: Finance
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, with reference to the schedule of comparable programme objects in HM Treasury's publication, Funding the Scottish Parliament, National Assembly for Wales and Northern Ireland Assembly: Statement of Funding Policy, published in October 2010, what projects were funded by the Research Establishments Major Capital funding; what the (a) projected and (b) actual cost was of each of those projects; and whether each of those projects has been completed.
	tabling member constituency	Kilmarnock and Loudoun
	tabling member printed	Alan Brown
	uin	11507
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/10/2015 answer text <p>The data in the HM Treasury publication Funding the Scottish Parliament, National Assembly for Wales and Northern Ireland Assembly, Statement of Funding Policywas compiled in 2010 using a different financial database system to the one subsequently used by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and its delivery partners. The term ‘Research Establishments Major Capital funding’ is not currently used by BIS. Information on overall science capital expenditure is available in the Science Capital Roadmap, in the BIS annual accounts, and relevant information is also obtainable in Research Council Annual Reports (see below).</p><p><strong>Information on overall science capital expenditure is available in the BIS annual accounts and useful information is also obtainable in Research Council Annual Reports (see below). </strong></p><ol><li>BIS Annual Reports and Accounts <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/bis-annual-reports-and-accounts" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/bis-annual-reports-and-accounts</a> The most recent report is here <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/444896/BIS-15-421-BIS-Annual-Report-15-web.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/444896/BIS-15-421-BIS-Annual-Report-15-web.pdf</a></li></ol><p>See Annex B, page 200 for tables that features resource and capital spend on science and research.</p><ol start="2"><li>Research Council Annual Reports <a href="http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/about/aboutrcs/governance/" target="_blank">http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/about/aboutrcs/governance/</a></li></ol><p>Annual Reports for each of the Research Councils with information on expenditure.</p> answering member constituency Orpington answering member printed Joseph Johnson question first answered 26/10/2015 12:10:22 answering member 4039 label Biography information for Lord Johnson of Marylebone
	tabling member	4470 label Biography information for Alan Brown

420937

	registered interest
	date	13/10/2015
	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	United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority: Expenditure
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, with reference to the schedule of comparable programme objects in HM Treasury's publication, Funding the Scottish Parliament, National Assembly for Wales and Northern Ireland Assembly: Statement of Funding Policy, published in October 2010, what the total expenditure was on UKAEA-Decommissioning between 2010 and 2015; and what the forecast expenditure in which locations is on such decommissioning in each of the next five years.
	tabling member constituency	Kilmarnock and Loudoun
	tabling member printed	Alan Brown
	uin	11509
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/10/2015 answer text <p>The data in the HM Treasury publication <em>Funding the Scottish Parliament, National Assembly for Wales an Northern Ireland Assembly, Statement of Funding Policy</em>was compiled in 2010 using a different financial database system to the one subsequently in use by BIS and its delivery partners. This means that the information requested could only be provided at disproportionate cost. However the UK Atomic Energy Authority, which is responsible for the UK fusion programme, has provided the following information.</p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>Year</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Legacy costs<sup>1</sup></strong></p></td><td><p><strong>JET decommissioning costs<sup>1, 5</sup></strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2010/11</p></td><td><p>8,279</p></td><td><p>29</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2011/12</p></td><td><p>10,798</p></td><td><p>37</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2012/13</p></td><td><p>7,356</p></td><td><p>43</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2013/14</p></td><td><p>6,814 plus 1,050 capital<sup>2</sup></p></td><td><p>62</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2014/15</p></td><td><p>6,024 plus 1,554 capital<sup>2</sup></p></td><td><p>42</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2015/16</p></td><td><p>8,315 (est.) plus 6,010 capital<sup>2</sup> (est.)</p></td><td><p>166 (est.)</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2016/17</p></td><td><p><em>See note 3</em></p></td><td><p>214 (est.)</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2017/18</p></td><td><p><em>See note 3</em></p></td><td><p>943 (est.)</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2018/19</p></td><td><p><em>See note 3</em></p></td><td><p>16,306<sup>4</sup> (est.)</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2019/20</p></td><td><p><em>See note 3</em></p></td><td><p>28,251 (est.)</p></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>Notes</p><p>1. Figures in £000s.</p><p>2. Capital costs cover new facilities on the Culham site such as the Materials Research Facility and RACE (Remote Applications in Challenging Environments) funded partly through the National Nuclear Users Facility and Oxford City Deal.</p><p>3. Subject to next Spending Review.</p><p>4. The costs rise substantially in 2018/19 due to the expected closure of JET in 2018 and start of decommissioning. However this date is under review with the European Commission with an extension proposed.</p><p>5. These costs are undiscounted and form part of the total undiscounted liability for decommissioning JET of £256,544k as stated in the 2014/15 UKAEA Annual Report and Accounts.</p> answering member constituency Orpington answering member printed Joseph Johnson question first answered 27/10/2015 10:56:46 answering member 4039 label Biography information for Lord Johnson of Marylebone
	tabling member	4470 label Biography information for Alan Brown

416228

	registered interest
	date	04/09/2015
	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	Infrastructure: Expenditure
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how much of the Government's £1.1 billion capital infrastructure fund for 2015-16 will be spent during 2015-16.
	tabling member constituency	Stockton North
	tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
	uin	8854
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/09/2015 answer text <p>For the purpose of my response I have interpreted the £1.1bn capital infrastructure fund to be the long term Science Capital allocation announced at Spending Review 2013.</p><p>The long term Science Capital allocation is allocated by financial year, and Government plans are to spend the full amount of £1.1bn in financial year 2015-16.</p> answering member constituency Orpington answering member printed Joseph Johnson question first answered 14/09/2015 16:57:44 answering member 4039 label Biography information for Lord Johnson of Marylebone
	tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

416229

	registered interest
	date	04/09/2015
	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	Infrastructure: Expenditure
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how much of the £1.1 billion capital infrastructure fund for 2015-16 has been (a) allocated for specific projects and (b) spent on delivering specific projects to date.
	tabling member constituency	Stockton North
	tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
	uin	8855
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/09/2015 answer text <p>For the purpose of my response I have interpreted the £1.1bn capital infrastructure fund to be the long term Science Capital allocation announced at Spending Review 2013 at £1.1bn a year.</p><p> </p><p>a) All of the capital spend supports scientific infrastructure projects. It is allocated by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) to, and managed by, BIS partner organisations, including the Research Councils, HEFCE and the UK Space Agency.</p><p> </p><p>Further details on the 15-16 Science Capital allocations are available in the 15-16 science and research allocation publication:</p><p> </p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/332767/bis-14-750-science-research-funding-allocations-2015-2016-corrected.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/332767/bis-14-750-science-research-funding-allocations-2015-2016-corrected.pdf</a></p><p> </p><p>b) In the 15-16 financial year, around £415m has been spent on Science Capital to end of August 2015.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Orpington answering member printed Joseph Johnson question first answered 15/09/2015 09:04:38 answering member 4039 label Biography information for Lord Johnson of Marylebone
	tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

456132

	registered interest
	date	29/02/2016
	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	Higher Education: Admissions
	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 potential effect of the UK leaving the EU on the number of students applying to study at higher education institutions in (a) Glasgow, (b) Scotland and (c) the UK.
	tabling member constituency	Glasgow Central
	tabling member printed	Alison Thewliss
	uin	29023
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/03/2016 answer text <p>At the February European Council, the Government negotiated a new settlement, giving the United Kingdom a special status in a reformed European Union. The Government's position, as set out by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister to the House on 22 February, is that the UK will be stronger, safer and better off remaining in a reformed EU.</p> answering member constituency Orpington answering member printed Joseph Johnson question first answered 14/03/2016 09:46:21 answering member 4039 label Biography information for Lord Johnson of Marylebone
	tabling member	4430 label Biography information for Alison Thewliss

416371

	registered interest
	date	04/09/2015
	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	Graduates: Employment
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether his Department plans to publish university course employability league tables.
	tabling member constituency	North West Leicestershire
	tabling member printed	Andrew Bridgen
	uin	8571
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/09/2015 answer text <p>My Department currently has no plans to publish employability league tables. Employability information is already published in a variety of ways and recent legislative changes will enable analysis of graduate earnings over a longer time period, thus providing a richer data set.</p><p>The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) publish provider-level comparisons of employability outcomes in the Higher Education Performance Indicators (<a href="https://www.hesa.ac.uk/pis/emp" target="_blank">https://www.hesa.ac.uk/pis/emp</a>). These are intended to be considered alongside the published benchmarks, which take account of the student entry profile and subject mix at each provider.</p><p>Information on graduate employment and salaries is also included in the Key Information Set (<a href="https://unistats.direct.gov.uk/" target="_blank">https://unistats.direct.gov.uk</a>) to help university applicants choose the most suitable course and higher education provider.</p><p>Finally, employment outcomes are one of the measures we are considering for inclusion in the new Teaching Excellence Framework. We will consult on this later this Autumn.</p> answering member constituency Orpington answering member printed Joseph Johnson question first answered 14/09/2015 13:25:12 answering member 4039 label Biography information for Lord Johnson of Marylebone
	tabling member	4133 label Biography information for Andrew Bridgen

428089

	registered interest
	date	13/11/2015
	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	Universities: Admissions
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many and what proportion of children in need (a) applied to and (b) entered university in the most recent years for which figures are available.
	tabling member constituency	Burton
	tabling member printed	Andrew Griffiths
	uin	16284
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/11/2015 answer text <p>Data published by UCAS show that young people from the most disadvantaged areas in England were more likely to enter higher education in 2014 than ever before, and the latest figures for 2015 show that the application rate was at a record level.</p><br /><p><strong>Acceptances and entry rates<sup>1</sup> for 18 year olds from the most disadvantaged areas<sup>2</sup> in England</strong></p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><br></p></td><td colspan="6"><p><strong>Year of entry</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><br></p></td><td><p><strong>2009</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2010</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2011</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2012</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2013</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2014</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Acceptances</p></td><td><p>N/A</p></td><td><p>19,130</p></td><td><p>19,920</p></td><td><p>19,890</p></td><td><p>21.180</p></td><td><p>22,980</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Entry rate</p></td><td><p>13.6%</p></td><td><p>14.0%</p></td><td><p>15.0%</p></td><td><p>15.1%</p></td><td><p>16.4%</p></td><td><p>18.2%</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Source: UCAS end of cycle report December 2014. Comparable figures for 2015 will be published in December. N/A = not available.</p><p><strong>Application rates<sup>3</sup> for 18 year olds from the most disadvantaged areas<sup>2</sup> in England</strong></p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><br></p></td><td colspan="6"><p><strong>Year of entry</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><br></p></td><td><p><strong>2010</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2011</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2012</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2013</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2014</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2015</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Application rate</p></td><td><p>18.0%</p></td><td><p>18.6%</p></td><td><p>17.9%</p></td><td><p>18.9%</p></td><td><p>20.4%</p></td><td><p>21.0%</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Source: UCAS application rate report January 2015.</p><br /><p>1. The entry rate is the percentage of the 18 year old population accepted into higher education through UCAS.</p><p>2. Quintile 1 of the POLAR indicator. The POLAR classification developed by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) classifies small areas across the UK into five groups according to their level of young participation (entry at age 18 or 19) in higher education. Each of these groups represents around 20 per cent of young people and are ranked from quintile 1 (areas with the lowest young participation rates, considered as the most disadvantaged) to quintile 5 (highest young participation rates, considered most advantaged).</p><p>3. The application rate is the percentage of the 18 year old population who apply to higher education via UCAS.</p><p><strong></strong></p> answering member constituency Orpington answering member printed Joseph Johnson question first answered 23/11/2015 14:35:50 answering member 4039 label Biography information for Lord Johnson of Marylebone
	tabling member	3936 label Biography information for Andrew Griffiths