R&D Tax Relief Usage Index: the post-clampdown squeeze on tech
UK R&D tax credit claims fell 26% to 46,950 in 2023-24, HMRC's anti-fraud clampdown working through the system. Tech remains the largest sector by claim volume. Sourced from HMRC's official R&D Tax Credits Statistics. Data pulled 2026-07-23.
Source: Research and Development Tax Credits Statistics: September 2025 (HM Revenue and Customs). Licence: Open Government Licence v3.0.
Key findings
- Total R&D tax credit claims fell to 46,950 in 2023-24, down 26% on the year before, as HMRC's anti-fraud and error compliance programme worked through the claimant base.
- Total relief cost £7.6bn on £46.1bn of qualifying R&D expenditure in 2023-24.
- Information & Communication is the largest sector by number of claims (12,305, 26% of the total) and the third-largest by cost (£1,565m, 21%).
- Information & Communication, Manufacturing, and Professional, Scientific & Technical together account for 71% of all claims and 71% of all relief cost.
Source: Research and Development Tax Credits Statistics: September 2025, under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Figures may be cited with attribution to Founder Tax Partners.
R&D tax credit claims, 2000-01 to 2023-24
Total number of claims for the R&D tax credit, all schemes combined, by accounting period. The steep rise to 2021-22 and the sharp fall since reflect, respectively, the pre-clampdown growth in claim volume (including error and fraud that HMRC later targeted) and the effect of the compliance programme.
2023-24 is a HMRC-uplifted provisional estimate; the true figure is expected to revise upward in the next annual release. Source: HMRC R&D Tax Credits Statistics (Table RD1), OGL v3.0.
Claims by sector, 2023-24
Number of claims by sector (based on the claimant company's primary SIC 2007 code), highest first. Information & Communication is the largest single sector.
Bars show number of claims; the figure in brackets is the share of total claims. Source: HMRC R&D Tax Credits Statistics (Table RD6), OGL v3.0.
Relief cost by region, 2023-24
Total R&D relief cost by region, based on the claimant company's registered address, which may not match where the R&D activity actually takes place.
Methodology and honest limitations
Source
All figures are read directly from HMRC's published R&D Tax Credits statistical tables (ODS format, main tables). Sector allocation is based on the primary SIC 2007 code of the claimant company as registered with Companies House, and may not correspond to the actual industry of the R&D activity. Regional allocation is based on the postcode of the company's registered address. Figures for 2021-22 to 2023-24 are provisional; 2023-24 figures are further uplifted by HMRC to include estimates for claims not yet received, and are expected to be revised upward in the next annual release. Cells marked '<10' or '<5' in the source are recorded as null here, not zero. The 'Total' rows in the sector and region tables carry HMRC's published 2023-24 totals (matching the annual claims, cost and expenditure series in this file), not a recomputed sum of the rows shown: because HMRC rounds each cell independently and suppresses small cells (recorded here as null), the individual sector and region rows do not always sum exactly to those totals.
Caveats
- The 2023-24 claim count (46,950) is a HMRC uplifted estimate, not a final count: some claims for that accounting period had not yet been received when the statistics were compiled, and the true figure typically revises upward in the following year's release.
- The sharp fall in claims from 2021-22 onward reflects a deliberate HMRC compliance clampdown (additional information forms, mandatory claim notification, increased fraud and error checks) introduced from August 2023, not a genuine fall in UK R&D activity.
- Sector is based on SIC 2007 self-classification of the claimant company; the R&D activity itself may sit in a different sector to the company's registered SIC code.
- Company size within a sector (SME scheme vs RDEC) is not separately published in the main tables' sector breakdown; the SME/RDEC split shown is UK-wide only.
- Figures are on an accounting-period basis, not a tax-year cash basis; claims for a given financial year continue to be received and revised for up to several years after that year ends.
Re-running the pull
The pull script is at startups-tech/pipeline/pull_rd_relief_index.py. It downloads HMRC's current R&D Tax Credits statistical tables (ODS format, main tables) and regenerates the JSON file that powers this page.
Sources and how to cite
Primary source
Research and Development Tax Credits Statistics: September 2025. Publisher: HM Revenue and Customs. Licence: Open Government Licence v3.0. Data pulled 2026-07-23.
Cite this index as
R&D Tax Relief Usage Index, derived from HMRC Research and Development Tax Credits Statistics (main tables), September 2025 edition. Published under OGL3. Data pulled 2026-07-23.
Download the full dataset (CSV)
Last updated: 2026-07-23.
Making an R&D claim in this environment?
Post-clampdown, a well-evidenced claim with a properly prepared Additional Information Form matters more than ever. We assess eligibility under the merged scheme and ERIS, prepare the technical narrative HMRC now expects, and handle claim notification deadlines.
Frequently asked questions
Why did R&D tax credit claims fall so sharply?
HMRC introduced a sustained anti-fraud and error compliance programme from 2023 onward: mandatory claim notification for new claimants, a required Additional Information Form setting out the R&D in detail, and a large increase in compliance checks on submitted claims. Total claims fell from 63,780 in 2022-23 to 46,950 in 2023-24, a fall of 26%. HMRC's own analysis attributes a large part of the earlier claim volume to error and fraud in the SME scheme, which the clampdown specifically targeted.
Is the tech sector still a major claimant of R&D relief?
Yes. Information & Communication is the largest single sector by number of claims (12,305 claims, 26% of the UK total) and the third-largest by cost (£1,565m, 21% of the total). Together with Manufacturing and Professional, Scientific & Technical services, these three sectors account for 71% of all claims and 71% of all relief paid.
What is the difference between the SME scheme, RDEC and the merged scheme?
Historically, smaller companies claimed under the SME scheme (a more generous deduction plus a payable credit for loss-makers) while larger companies used the Research and Development Expenditure Credit (RDEC), a taxable above-the-line credit. For accounting periods beginning on or after 1 April 2024, the two were merged into a single scheme paying a 20% above-the-line credit for most companies, with an Enhanced R&D Intensive Support (ERIS) rate for loss-making, R&D-intensive SMEs. The historical data in this index predates the merger and reflects the old scheme structure.
How much scrutiny does an R&D claim now face?
Considerably more than before the clampdown. Claim notification is required within 6 months of the accounting period end for companies that have not claimed in the prior three years, an Additional Information Form must accompany every claim describing the qualifying activity in technical detail, and HMRC's compliance team reviews a much larger proportion of claims than in earlier years. The claim collapse visible in this index is, in large part, the direct effect of that scrutiny discouraging speculative or weakly-evidenced claims.
Where does this data come from?
All figures come from HMRC's Research and Development Tax Credits Statistics, published annually each September on gov.uk under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Figures for the most recent 1 to 3 years are provisional and, for the very latest year, uplifted by HMRC to estimate claims not yet received; both are subject to upward revision in the next annual release.