UK Parliament published the government’s response to the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee’s report on innovation, growth and the regions. The committee’s report identified major shortfalls in how the government tracks and shares data on policies intended to support innovation across the country, saying this makes it impossible to assess whether funding is being targeted effectively or to measure the economic benefits. In its response, the government accepted that more reliable and granular data is needed, but said improvements must be balanced against the time and resources required to collect that information. It also rejected the committee’s call for a standalone national framework for developing innovation clusters, arguing that this is already covered by the industrial strategy. The response said that over the next year the government will develop a more robust and joined-up approach to monitoring innovation clusters, publish an updated innovation cluster map and establish a portal to connect innovators with public funding. On Catapults, it agreed they can do more to strengthen their regional impact, but said this should remain secondary to their core national role. It also confirmed plans to introduce an improved approach to measuring Catapult performance ahead of the next funding cycle, which begins in 2028. In comments accompanying the publication, committee Chair Dame Chi Onwurah welcomed the government’s acceptance of several recommendations and its recognition that better data is essential. She criticized the refusal to create a separate national framework for monitoring and evaluating innovation clusters, saying the government still lacks an effective way to measure the impact of its investment. She also noted the government’s stated aim of leveraging at least GBP 3 of private investment for every GBP 1 of public investment and UK Research and Innovation’s work to standardize recording of private sector leverage across its portfolio.

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