The Times
Ministers will announce plans tomorrow for an £800 million scientific research agency legally entitled to invest in projects that are likely to fail and which will be exempted from freedom of information laws.
New legislation will found the Advanced Research and Invention Agency, or Aria, and allow it to operate as independently as possible by investing in “high-risk, high-reward” projects.
It will be exempt from rules designed to prevent taxpayers’ money from being invested in projects with little chance of success. Ministers hope that the agency, to be set up next year, will produce next-generation technology.
The project’s future was put in doubt when Dominic Cummings, the prime minister’s adviser, left Downing Street after an internal power struggle. Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, has now decided to push ahead.
The Treasury has authorised £800 million in funding for the agency over the rest of this parliament.
The prime minister outlined plans for a British Advanced Research Projects Agency, or Arpa, in the 2019 Tory manifesto. This has been renamed, and modelled on the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, Darpa, which supported the development of interactive computing and the internet.
Aria is likely to be exempt from FoI laws, which ministers argue could give rivals a competitive advantage. However, such an exemption may invite criticisms over transparency. The editors of newspapers including The Times are calling on the government to protect the Freedom of Information Act.
A government source said that Aria would publish its accounts and report on its activities annually. “The new body is being set up so it can take fast, agile decisions without bureaucracy,” they said.
Policy Exchange, a think tank, published a report last year saying that the government must be prepared to “embrace failure”. Cummings wrote in his blog in 2017 that every attempt since the 1950s to set up such an agency had been blocked by Whitehall.
The science and technology select committee said last week that the project could be “a brand in search of a product”. Greg Clark, its chairman and a Tory MP, said: “The government’s financial commitment to supporting such an agency is welcome, but the budget will not be put to good use if Arpa’s purpose remains unfocused . . . The government must make up its mind what Arpa’s mission is to be.”