The Bill will also signal a 10-year grace period before the power to dissolve the agency can be exercised. When we look back in history, to the 1950s and 1960s, we see that with this approach a US agency called the Advanced Research Projects Agency developed GPS as well as the precursor to the internet. This freedom to fail is fundamental to ARIA’s model, and the provision will empower its leaders to make ambitious research and funding decisions. The Bill explicitly states that ARIA may give weight to the potential of significant benefits when funding research that carries a high risk of failure. The Bill recognises that funding transformational long-term science requires patience and a high risk appetite. To deliver that, we have introduced the ARIA Bill. As set out in our policy statement published only last week, we have to give ARIA significant powers and freedoms and a mandate to be bold. With £800 million committed to ARIA by 2024-25, the new agency will contribute extremely effectively to our R&D ecosystem. The creation of ARIA is part of a concerted action by this Government to cement the UK’s position as a science superpower.

I am convinced that these features will make ARIA succeed. I have spoken with many of our leading scientists, researchers and innovators and their message has been absolutely clear. It will invest in the judgment of able people, and it will also enjoy flexibility and a wide degree of operational freedom.

It will have strategic and cultural autonomy. The new agency will be characterised by a sole focus on funding high-risk, high-reward research. I am sure that it will play a unique and exciting role in the UK’s research and development system. Building on our country’s proud history of wonderful inventions, I was particularly pleased to announce the creation of the Advanced Research and Invention Agency last month. It has shown us all the incredible benefits that breakthrough science and technology can provide. Thanks to the UK’s historic funding for research and the groundbreaking action of scientists at Oxford University, a British vaccine is once again helping us to return to a more normal life. When we consider the coronavirus that has devasted our country and the world this year and last year, Jenner’s work takes on a particular resonance. Mr Jenner essentially discovered immunisation. Friend the Member for Thornbury and Yate (Luke Hall). Members know, he was an apprentice to a surgeon in Chipping Sodbury in the constituency of my hon. He is often referred to as the father of immunology he was a British physician who created the world’s first vaccine.

I am sure that many of us appreciate his work. I should like to start my remarks by drawing attention to the much-celebrated work of Edward Jenner. I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time.

Pieces of Lies by Angela Richardson