Session 2019-21 Monday No. 188 22 February 2021 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD) HOUSE OF LORDS WRITTEN STATEMENTS AND WRITTEN ANSWERS Written Statements ................................ ................ 1 Written Answers ................................ ..................... 4 [I] indicates that the member concerned has a relevant registered interest. The full register of interests can be found at http://www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/standards-and-interests/register-of-lords-interests/ Members who want a printed copy of Written Answers and Written Statements should notify the Printed Paper Office. This printed edition is a reproduction of the original text of Answers and Statements, which can be found on the internet at http://www.parliament.uk/writtenanswers/. Ministers and others who make Statements or answer Questions are referred to only by name, not their ministerial or other title. The current list of ministerial and other responsibilities is as follows. Minister Responsibilities Baroness Evans of Bowes Park Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal Earl Howe Deputy Leader of the House of Lords Lord Agnew of Oulton Minister of State, Treasury and Cabinet Office Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Lord Ashton of Hyde Chief Whip Baroness Barran Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Baroness Berridge Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Education and Department for International Trade Lord Bethell Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Care Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Whip Waldrist Lord Callanan Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Earl of Courtown Deputy Chief Whip Lord Gardiner of Kimble Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Baroness Goldie Minister of State, Ministry of Defence Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Lord Greenhalgh Minister of State, Home Office and Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government Lord Grimstone of Boscobel Minister of State, Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and Department for International Trade Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay Whip Baroness Penn Whip Baroness Scott of Bybrook Whip Baroness Stedman-Scott Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work and Pensions Lord Stewart of Dirleton Advocate-General for Scotland Lord True Minister of State, Cabinet Office Baroness Vere of Norbiton Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Transport Baroness Williams of Trafford Minister of State, Home Office Lord Wolfson of Tredegar Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Justice Viscount Younger of Leckie Whip © Parliamentary Copyright House of Lords 2021 This publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Open Parliament licence, which is published at www.parliament.uk/site-information/copyright/ Written Statements 22 February 2021 Page 1 – in fact, often it will do aspects of each within a single Written Statements programme. Monday, 22 February 2021 • A high tolerance for risk and failure. Failure is part of the scientific process, and particularly central to finding the technological breakthroughs that have the potential Advanced Research and Invention Agency to create the industries and jobs of the future. ARIA [HLWS780] will not shy away from high risk, in the pursuit of high rewards. Lord Callanan: My Right Honourable friend the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial • Minimal bureaucracy. The recent approach to Strategy Kwasi Kwarteng has today made the following COVID rapid response funds and the Vaccine statement: Taskforce has led to a cultural shift around funding and decision-making, towards a more lean and agile system, The UK has a proud history of scientific excellence and and ARIA will continue this trend. It will have an invention. Charles Babbage, Ada Lovelace, and later, innovative approach to funding, with the ability to use Alan Turing pioneered early predecessors of the mechanisms such as seed grants and prizes to ensure the computer. Thomas Newcomen and James Watt gave us best support for the best ideas. ARIA’s programme the steam engine, and Michael Faraday gave us the managers will be able to pull in scientists on projects modern battery. within in a matter of weeks. This Government is committed to continuing this • To empower exceptional talent. ARIA will be run by tradition and cementing our role as a science superpower. exceptional scientists who have the expertise to identify That is why our manifesto committed to creating a new the most exciting and ground-breaking research to funding agency, focused on high-risk, high-reward invest in. Government will invest in these exceptional research. I am pleased to update the House that we will be individuals, empowering them to use their expertise to fulfilling this commitment through a new Advanced identify what research to back rather than providing a Research and Invention Agency (ARIA), and we will also research focus for the organisation, and giving them the be introducing a Bill as soon as parliamentary time allows freedom to start and stop projects quickly and redirect to create this body. funding efficiently. ARIA will have the sole focus to fund ground-breaking Alongside the Bill, we will recruit a visionary CEO and research – research that sparks transformational societal experienced Chair. They will develop ARIA by setting change through the creation of new technologies and new the agenda, shaping the culture, and building an industries. exceptional team for the agency. With £800 million committed to ARIA up to 2024/25, ARIA will further diversify our rich and dynamic R&D ARIA will form a central part of delivering on our R&D system, taking us to the next level of scientific and Roadmap, published in July 2020, to ensure the UK is the technological advances. Its successes stand to have an best place for scientists, researchers, and entrepreneurs to impact for how we fund R&D in the future, and ensure we live and work, while helping to power up the UK’s maintain our outstanding global reputation for innovation economic and social recovery. and discovery. As we have developed ARIA, we have sought best practice from international partners. Success stories Clerk of the Parliaments include DARPA in the US, whose predecessor, ARPA, [HLWS777] was instrumental in creating transformational technologies like the internet and GPS. More recently, Baroness Evans of Bowes Park: I informed the House DARPA has been behind precursors to technologies such on 30 September 2020 of Ed Ollard’s intention to retire as Apple’s SIRI. from the office of Clerk of the Parliaments with effect from 1 April 2021. A recruitment process for his We have also listened to the scientific community about successor as Clerk of the Parliaments has now concluded. how these models can best be adapted for the UK to enhance our R&D offer. This includes ensuring ARIA Four applicants from a wide and high calibre field were complements existing funders and makes a distinct interviewed by a board consisting of myself, the Lord contribution to the wider R&D landscape. To this end, Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition, the Leader of the ARIA will have a bespoke purpose and structure, and will Liberal Democrats, the Convenor of the Crossbench Peers work in partnership with UKRI and across the ecosystem. and Dame Sue Owen, a former DCMS Permanent Secretary and Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion ARIA’s key features will be: Champion. • A singular focus on high-risk, high reward research The unanimous recommendation of the board is that funding. ARIA will provide support for Simon Burton should succeed Ed Ollard as Clerk of the transformational, long-term science and technology. Parliaments. We will have an opportunity to pay tribute to ARIA will not be restricted in whether it funds pure Ed’s career in the House nearer to the date of his science, applied science, or technological development retirement. Page 2 22 February 2021 Written Statements With Simon’s appointment, the post of Clerk Assistant to amend the existing remote unquantified contingent will now fall vacant, so an open and fair recruitment liability held by BEIS to include all costs arising from process will now commence. exposure to ionising radiation due to the fusion activities of UKAEA. Department for Transport: Contingencies This contingent liability will remain remote and Fund Advance unquantified. There is no expiry date so will be reviewed annually to ensure it continues to be good value for [HLWS779] money for the taxpayer. Baroness Vere of Norbiton: My Right Honourable The Government will be subject to a new contingent friend, the Secretary of State for Transport (Grant liability for all liabilities from UKAEA fusion activities Shapps), has made the following Ministerial Statement: that lead to exposure to ionising radiation, and I will be I hereby give notice of the Department for Transport laying a Departmental Minute today containing a having drawn advances from the Contingencies Fund description of the liability undertaken. totalling £4,000,000,000 to enable expenditure on COVID-19 support packages to be spent ahead of the Research and Development Update passage of the Supply and Appropriation Act. The