We are confident the digital technology sector and its startup community will continue to go from strength to strength. As outlined in our Digital Strategy and Charter, our ambition is to ensure the UK is the best place in the world to start and grow a digital business - and that ambition remains after we leave the EU. Tech Nation and Dealroom have released figures showing that investment in UK tech reached £6.8 billion ($8.7bn) last year and has already reached £3.8 billion ($4.8bn) in the first half of 2019, showing that the UK tech ecosystem is still world-leading and remains in a strong position.<\/p>
Through our extensive engagement with the sector, we understand that the primary barriers to growth for startups are having adequate access to both finance and talent. That is why for finance, Government announced a new £2.5 billion British Patient Capital programme, which is expected to attract a further £5 billion in private investment, in order to support UK companies with high growth potential to access the long-term investment they need to grow and go global.<\/p>
To continue to attract international talent, we have doubled the number of Tier 1 Exceptional Talent visas to 2,000, and taken doctors and nurses out of the Tier 2 visa cap, freeing up many more skilled worker visas to other sectors, including tech. At the end of March this year, Home Office launched the new Start-Up and Innovator visa routes for entrepreneurs, which will replace a route exclusively for graduates, opening it up to other talented business founders.<\/p>
In the Autumn Budget 2017 we also announced investment of £21 million to expand Tech City UK into a nationwide network \u2013 Tech Nation \u2013 aimed at accelerating the growth of the digital tech sector across the country. The funding will help Tech Nation support 40,000 entrepreneurs and up to 4,000 start-ups as they scale their businesses across the UK including Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh, and Newcastle. And at London Tech Week last week, the PM launched a study into tech competitiveness - this will identify key opportunities and support mechanisms for business growth in the digital tech sector.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4247", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Lord Ashton of Hyde"} } , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Lord Ashton of Hyde"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2019-06-24", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2019-06-24T11:33:17.527Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "10"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Digital, Culture, Media and Sport"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Digital, Culture, Media and Sport"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2019-06-10", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Technology: New Businesses"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "2"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25277", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Lords"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to continue to increase the number of UK technology business start-ups after Brexit.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/1796", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Lord Taylor of Warwick"} } , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Lord Taylor of Warwick"} ], "uin" : "HL16222"} , {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1130867", "AnsweringBody" : [{"_value" : "Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government"} ], "answer" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1130867/answer", "answerText" : {"_value" : "
This Government is clear that nobody should be without a roof over their head. That is why we have committed to ending rough sleeping for good, with the aim of halving it by 2022.<\/p>
Last summer we published the cross-government Rough Sleeping Strategy. This sets out an ambitious £100 million package to help people who sleep rough now, but also puts in place the structures that will end rough sleeping once and for all. The Government has now committed over £1.2 billion to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping over the spending review period.<\/p>
We are giving serious consideration to the findings of the report from St Mungo\u2019s and Homeless Link. Housing-related support services are a local government responsibility. To deepen our understanding, we are undertaking a review of housing-related support services in order to build a comprehensive picture of current arrangements and how support and housing fit together.<\/p>
We also know that we need to build more social homes, which will help us to achieve our goal of preventing homelessness. The Government has made £9 billion available through the Affordable Homes Programme to March 2022, to deliver 250,000 new affordable homes of a wide range of tenures - including social rent. The expanded programme will provide homes to meet the housing needs of a range of people in different circumstances and different housing markets \u2013 building the right homes in the right places.<\/p>
We understand the importance of giving local areas security around funding. The Chancellor has said that there will be a spending review this year. Decisions about the future of homelessness funding, along with all other government funding, will be made at this point. Ministers have made clear that homelessness and rough sleeping are a key priority for this Government. We are working with other government departments to assess what more can be done to combat rough sleeping and wider homelessness. This work is being overseen by the Ministerial Rough Sleeping and Homelessness Reduction Taskforce and will be an important part of our preparations for the forthcoming Spending Review.<\/p>
While there is more work to be done in this area, there are some positive developments which I would like to point to. For the first time since 2010, the annual rough sleeping statistics saw a decrease in the number of those sleeping rough. Whilst only 2 per cent, this is in the face of average yearly increases of nearly 16 per cent. The annual rough sleeping statistics also showed a 19 per cent decrease in the number of those sleeping rough amongst the 83 local authorities that were part of the first phase of our Rough Sleeping Initiative (RSI) in comparison with 2017. We are currently carrying out an evaluation of the impact of our RSI, that will help to determine what effect our funding has had on reducing numbers of rough sleepers<\/p>
In its first year, RSI funding provided over 1,750 new bed spaces and 500 staff across the country. This year we have expanded the initiative with an investment of £46 million providing funding for an estimated 2,600 bed spaces and 750 staff. £12 million of this is for areas new to the programme, bringing the total authorities funded to 246.<\/p>"}
, "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4053", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Mrs Heather Wheeler"}
}
, "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "South Derbyshire"}
, "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Mrs Heather Wheeler"}
, "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2019-06-17", "_datatype" : "dateTime"}
, "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"}
, "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2019-06-17T16:10:55.963Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"}
]}
, "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "7"}
, "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Housing, Communities and Local Government"}
, "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Housing, Communities and Local Government"}
, "date" : {"_value" : "2019-06-10", "_datatype" : "dateTime"}
, "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Homelessness"}
, "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"}
, "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"}
}
], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of recent research by St Mungo\u2019s and Homeless Link showing reductions in local authority funding and in spending on homelessness between 2008-09 and 2017-18 and and an increase in rough sleeping since 2010.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"}
, "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4523", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Catherine West"}
}
, "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Hornsey and Wood Green"}
, "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Catherine West"}
], "uin" : "262413"}
, {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1130868", "AnsweringBody" : [{"_value" : "Department for Education"}
], "answer" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1130868/answer", "answerText" : {"_value" : "
The terms of international exchanges are the responsibility of individual higher education institutions. The main exchange programme supported through public funding in the UK is Erasmus+, a European Union programme for education, training, youth and sport, which provides funding for both EU and non-EU students to come to UK universities.<\/p>
<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4021", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Chris Skidmore"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Kingswood"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Chris Skidmore"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2019-06-13", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2019-06-13T16:03:57.093Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "60"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Education"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Education"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2019-06-10", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Educational Exchanges"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support his Department provides to EU universities wanting to send non-EU students to UK universities on exchange programmes.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4124", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Chi Onwurah"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Newcastle upon Tyne Central"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Chi Onwurah"} ], "uin" : "262364"} , {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1130870", "AnsweringBody" : [{"_value" : "Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy"} ], "answer" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1130870/answer", "answerText" : {"_value" : "
The Committee on Climate Change published their report on \u2018Biomass in a low carbon economy\u2019 in November 2018. The report was a significant contribution to the evidence base and will inform future policy development on renewable energy, including the use of anaerobic digesters and sustainability criteria for biomass.<\/p>
<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4021", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Chris Skidmore"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Kingswood"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Chris Skidmore"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2019-06-17", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2019-06-17T12:31:08.67Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "201"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2019-06-10", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Anaerobic Digestion: Biofuels"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the oral contribution of the Minister for Energy and Clean Growth of 16 October 2019, Official Report column 498, what progress the Government has made on reviewing the use of anaerobic digesters and the sustainable sourcing of biofuels.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4650", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Colin Clark"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Gordon"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Colin Clark"} ], "uin" : "262415"} , {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1130877", "AnsweringBody" : [{"_value" : "Department for Education"} ], "answer" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1130877/answer", "answerText" : {"_value" : "
In 2017-18, income from the Immigration Skills Charge (ISC) contributed £75 million to the department\u2019s skills budget.<\/p>
While the income raised is not additional funding for skills, the ISC is helping to maintain the department\u2019s existing skills budget and existing level of investment in skills in England. As such, it is not possible to provide a breakdown of how the department\u2019s ISC allocation is spent.<\/p>
The ISC ensures that we can continue to invest in developing the skills that the country needs and also addresses skills gaps in the workforce. Similarly, it helps to maintain funding levels for each of the devolved administrations.<\/p>