Tom Blenkinsop – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Blenkinsop on 2016-07-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans he has to re-examine the potential merits of establishing a materials catapult for manufacturing.

Joseph Johnson

The Government recognises the importance of manufacturing to the UK economy and we have continued to invest significant funding through the High Value Manufacturing Catapult. This has led to the launch of two new programmes designed to offer additional cutting edge equipment and expertise and extend the Catapult’s services to more manufacturing sectors; and to enable UK SMEs to become more productive and to win more business. We have also provided funding for the Catapult to establish two new centres in the North East – the National Biologics Manufacturing Centre at Darlington and the National Formulation Centre at NETPark in Sedgefield.

Innovate UK manages development of the Catapult network on behalf of Government.

It has rigorously considered the potential merits of establishing a Materials Catapult for Manufacturing and has concluded that there is no robust case to establish a Materials Catapult at this time. This decision has been confirmed within the last month and my Department does not intend to re-examine this assessment.