§ 65. Mr. Wainwrightasked the Parliamentary Secretary for Science if he will state the amount of public money spent in research during each of the past three years on the cause of rheumatism.
§ Mr. Denzil FreethThe Medical Research Council's total expenditure on research specifically on rheumatism in the past three years was as follows:
34W
1960–61 … approx. £80,000 1961–62 … approx. ?104,000 1962–63 … approx. £87,000 It is impracticable to make a separate estimate of expenditure on research into the causes of the disease. The figures include no allowance for the large amount of fundamental research undertaken by the Council, for example in the fields of immunology and biochemistry, which indirectly may throw light on the problem of rheumatism.
Research on rheumatism is also carried out with support from public funds in university departments and in hospitals of the National Health Service in the course of treating patients, but it is not possible to make a reliable estimate of the expenditure involved.