The Government agrees with the Committee’s analysis of the need to consider the long- term plan and implications of critical and emerging technologies. To this end, in line with the Prime Minister’s vision articulated in the Integrated Review, the UK’s goal is to grow the impact and influence of the UK’s ‘Science and Technology Power’ by 2030, building a durable competitive edge in science and technology. Achieving this goal requires a whole-of-UK effort in collaboration with international partners. In this, the Government’s primary role is to create the enabling environment for a thriving science and technology ecosystem of scientists, researchers, inventors and innovators, across academia, the private sector, regulators and standards bodies, working alongside the manufacturing base to take innovations through to markets. The Government will also invest in strengthening our international science and technology collaboration, with co-creation—bringing together talent and innovation from around the world—essential to success. A demonstration of this is the £800 million being spent to set up an independent body for high-risk, high-reward research: the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA), which will back breakthrough technologies and basic research through experimentation. This is in line with an increase in economy-wide R&D to 2.4% of GDP by 2027, an investment of at least £6.6 billion defence funding over the next four years in advanced and next-generation R&D, and an overall investment of £14.6 billion in R&D across government in 2021/22. The UK will establish a leading role in critical and emerging technologies where there is a realistic prospect of delivering strategic advantage. These will typically be areas which will have significant societal, security and/or economic impact; where the UK is capable of establishing and sustaining a dominant position; where technical standards can reinforce and uphold our open society and/or is at risk from becoming overly dependent on certain supply chains. A new ‘own-collaborate-access’ framework, will guide our approach: • Own: where the UK plays a leading and owning role, end-to-end from discovery to commercialisation. This will always involve elements of collaboration and access. • Collaborate: where the UK is not able to establish a dominant position, but can provide unique contributions that allow us to collaborate with others to achieve our goals. • Access: where the UK will seek to acquire critical science and technology from others, through options, deals and relationships. technology, a critical new function will be instituted in the Government Office for Science providing information, analysis, and insights to inform strategic decisions across Government Departments. Meanwhile, the Government continues to demonstrate it’s support and commitment to the Tech Sector which has benefited from recent HMG support including the Future Fund, Bounce Back Loans and Coronavirus Business Loans. The Future Fund alone disbursed £1,066m in convertible loans to 1,055 innovative companies facing difficulties, including digital businesses. The Future Fund: Breakthrough, announced at the 2021 Budget will provide £375m co-invested alongside the private sector into R&D intensive firms that are looking to raise at least £20m in equity.