The Science and Technology Committee said the next administration “must maintain the commitment to R&D funding” with a focus on science and technology in order to drive a high-tech, high-growth economy.

In a new report, 'Science and technology superpower: more than a slogan?', the committee found that the UK’s science policy had been let down by short-termism and a proliferation of disparate strategies without an overarching vision.

“There are a large number of government bodies with unclear remits and interactions, which means that it is often unclear who owns a specific policy. At the time of writing, there was no science minister, which further blurs lines of accountability,” the report said.

The current target is to boost spending on R&D to 2.4 per cent of GDP (the 2017 average for OECD countries) by 2027 alongside a significant increase in public funding for R&D. But the Committee found that industry had been “insufficiently engaged”...