Future of the UK space industry
A debate on the future of the UK space industry has been scheduled for 4 February 2021. This House of Commons Library debate pack provides background information and press and parliamentary coverage.

R&D spending in the UK. Including analysis of R&D by region and industry, and international comparisons of R&D.
Research and development spending (605 KB, PDF)
Research and development (R&D) refers to creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge.
In the UK in 2018, total expenditure on R&D was £37.1 billion, £558 per head, or the equivalent of 1.7% of GDP.
R&D investment has risen steadily over the past few decades, from £18.5 billion in 1981 to the current total of £37.1 billion (in 2018 prices). This is a real terms increase of 101%.
But as a proportion of GDP, R&D expenditure has fallen over this period (it was the equivalent of 2.0% of GDP in 1981).
The Government has a target for total R&D investment to reach 2.4% of GDP by 2027.
The business sector is the largest funder of R&D performed in the UK. In 2018, it funded £20.3 billion (55%) of R&D.
Public funding for R&D (government, research councils and the devolved higher education funding councils) was £9.6 billion in 2018, 26% of the total.
The business sector performed R&D worth £25.0 billion in 2017, 68% of the total.
The public sector (including research councils and devolved higher education) performed £11.2 billion of R&D, 30% of the total.
In 2018, R&D performed in the South East of England in 2017 £7.0 billion, 19% of the total. R&D performed in the South East, the East of England and London accounted for 53% of all UK R&D. Per head, R&D expenditure in the East of England is the highest: £1064 per head. The figure for the whole UK was £558 per head. In Wales, R&D expenditure is £250 per head.
In 2018, the pharmaceutical industry performed the most R&D in the UK – worth £4.5 billion. The automotive manufacturing industry performed the second most R&D, worth £3.8 billion.
In 2018, the miscellaneous business services and technical testing sector employed the most the most people in R&D related roles: 27,000. The pharmaceuticals sector had the second highest R&D related employment: 25,000.
The UK R&D expenditure of 1.7% of GDP is below the OECD average of 2.4%.
R&D expenditure in Germany is the equivalent of 3.1% of GDP, in the US it is 2.8% and in France it is 2.2%.
The world’s top three R&D performing companies are Alphabet (from the USA), which performed £16.0 billion of R&D in 2019, followed by Samsung (from South Korea), which performed £13.0 billion and Microsoft (from the USA), which performed £12.9 billion.
Research and development spending (605 KB, PDF)
A debate on the future of the UK space industry has been scheduled for 4 February 2021. This House of Commons Library debate pack provides background information and press and parliamentary coverage.
The Medicines and Medical Devices Bill 2019-21 (Bill 136) was introduced in the Commons on 13 February 2020 and had its Second Reading on 2 March 2020. The Committee Stage ran from 8-10 June 2020 and remaining Commons stages took place on 23 June 2020. The Bill was considered in the Lords between June 2020 and January 2021. Consideration of the Lords amendments will take place in the Commons on 27 January 2021.
The Environment Bill 2019-21 has completed it Committee Stage in the House of Commons. This paper is a summary of what happened in the Committee and how the Bill has changed. It considers key Government and Opposition amendments. It is prepared in advance of the Bill's next stages scheduled for 26 January 2021.