Select committee: Science and Technology Committee
Recommendation 46
1st Report - “Science and technology superpower”: more than a slogan?
Published 4 Aug 2022
Paragraph 116
Science and Technology Committee Delivering a UK science and technology strategy All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
The role that public procurement will play in a science and technology strategy needs to be clarified. The Government should set out which technologies, or areas of technology, it will support through public procurement. A proportion of public procurement spending should be set aside to support defined areas of technological priority, with the value for money rules being interpreted appropriately. The flexible interpretation of value for money rules should apply to future funding decisions, not just the initial procurement decision.
From: Science and Technology Committee, 1st Report - “Science and technology superpower”: more than a slogan?, paragraph 116, 4 August 2022
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 6 March 2023 (deadline 3 March 2023).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government agrees that science and technology are essential to the UK's future and points to the new Department for Science, Innovation and Technology as its main response, while accepting some recommendations and not others.
- On strategy and metrics, it agrees that "policy coherence is essential" and says it is "considering how best to monitor progress", "with the aim of capturing measurable indicators across key priority areas".
- On the Own-Collaborate-Access framework, it says it is analysing which technologies should be priorities and "will set these out in the near future".
- On the National Science and Technology Council, it "has noted" the Committee's recommendations on publishing details of committee discussions, and states that it is "a long-established precedent" that such information "is not normally shared publicly".
- On departmental research funding, it states that it "does not accept that there is a risk" of duplicating UKRI funding, and says departments need not update their areas of research interest annually.