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How do you think the government should seek to protect and retain control of technologies of national strategic importance?

It's very important to understand one thing, which is that the difficult part here is having the expertise in these areas. The UK, through public policy over many years, has done this incredibly well. We have the most fantastic science base in the UK, it's second to none. We lead the world in making inventions and discoveries in these areas and have the very best people. So that part, which if we were having this discussion in another country would be what we'd be talking about, is done. We have the difficult bit.

What we’ve got to do is realise that once we understand that something is strategic, we have to take a different approach to the next part, which is how do we convert that into economic impact? How do we convert it into something that optimises our public services and creates world influence? Something that gives us the ability to have some muscle in the world and be listened to. And that comes down to how we go from the lab to the corporate world. This is where we've lacked in the past. Some of that has been an understandable belief that the market can sort things out and free market decisions, which is generally a very good idea. But every so often, there comes along something which is very strategic, that we need to take a slightly different view of. That could be a technology, it could be a company, or it could even be a data set. The NHS, for example, has amazing data sets. Well, how do we use those? Do we just give them to anyone in the world that wants to create something? And if we do that, on what terms? It's that strategic thinking, which is about moving Britain into this next era, that we've got to start to do.