OECD data just released shows the large scale of UK government support via the tax system for R&D. Data are from the newly updated OECD R&D Tax Incentives Database. Some of what I took away from this:
Tax incentives now provide 60% of government support for business R&D across the OECD, more than double their 28% share in 2004, according to the newly updated OECD R&D Tax Incentives Database. R&D tax relief reached 0.16% of GDP in 2024, up from 0.05% in 2004, while direct funding for business R&D remained at 0.10%.
Here are the cross-country data as a share of GDP. Notice the large share of the tax relief in the UK
Source: OECD R&D Tax Incentives Database, June 2026.
and as a share of BERD:
