10:57 Ian Paisley (in the Chair)

I have a maths degree, so I am biased, and I know that maths can often seem a bit impenetrable to those not familiar with it, and that being “no good” at maths can almost be a boast sometimes, but maths enables the most exciting and urgent technological developments in energy generation, artificial intelligence, driverless cars, quantum computing and tackling climate change. Professor Alison Etheridge, chair of the Council for the Mathematical Sciences, points out that the maths used to design dust filters in vacuum cleaners is also used to develop filters to remove arsenic from groundwater in the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta, which benefits hundreds of thousands of people.

At this time, many of the United Kingdom’s priorities are focused on energy supply and climate change, as well as targets for the future, and the University of Lancaster has concluded that mathematics has proven to be a basic but crucial component of building resilience in terms of flooding and understanding data fluctuations with respect to our energy supplies. With that in mind, does the right hon. Gentleman agree that further funding for mathematics must be centred on helping our students of STEM—science, technology, engineering and maths—including 53% of further education students in Northern Ireland, although I acknowledge the Minister has no responsibility for them, because they are paving the way for success with respect to environmental change in the UK?

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11:14 The Minister of State, Department for Education (Nick Gibb)

The right hon. Gentleman mentioned the funding of mathematical sciences research. Research in mathematical sciences is key for the advancement of all areas of science and technology, and it is a vital area of science in itself. An additional £124 million has been committed to mathematical sciences, on top of between £25 million and £30 million a year for grants, fellowships and studentships, which UKRI’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council has always invested in this area. Absorbing any additional uplift to mathematical sciences into core budgets would require significant reductions in other engineering and physical sciences disciplines. That would reduce critical capabilities in disciplines such as engineering and information communications technology, which, alongside mathematical sciences, are key foundations of the UK’s ambitions in areas such as net zero and AI.

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