Productivity

5. What steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to ensure that Government-funded research is used to help increase levels of productivity.

The Government are providing record levels of taxpayer funding for research, and my right hon. Friend is right to highlight the opportunity to improve productivity. A priority for research councils is to focus on not just discovery but innovation, so that British taxpayers feel the benefits of faster economic growth, rising living standards and better health outcomes.

As I saw during a recent visit to Chase Farm Hospital, better digital systems can dramatically improve NHS productivity, and artificial intelligence can contribute to that as well. Will the Government use their science and research budget to increase NHS output, improve outcomes for patients and get waiting lists down?

That is exactly what we are doing. On Monday, the Prime Minister announced £15.5 million to roll out artificial intelligence radiotherapy that locates cancer cells two and a half times more quickly, helping to reduce those anxious days for patients and their families who are awaiting a diagnosis. That is affordable only thanks to the fact that our plan for the economy is working. Labour has no plan, and would end up having to cut the research budget.