§ Mr. KennedyTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science (1) what funds the Government presently make available for research into vitamin B12 deficiency among premature babies;
(2) if he will list those hospitals and research establishments presently carrying out research into vitamin B12 deficiency among premature babies.
§ Mr. Alan HowarthThe main government agency for supporting medical research in the United Kingdom is the Medical Research Council (MRC) which receives its grant-in-aid from this Department. That grant totals £202 million in the current financial year. The MRC is an independent body, and normally decides its research priorities on its own expert judgment. The MRC Dunn nutrition unit, one of the world's leading institutes of nutritional research, while not doing any specific work on vitamin B12 deficiency in premature babies, does have research projects on the early response to diet in premature infants and on the impact of early nutrition on long term outcome. The MRC is always ready to consider, in competition with other applications, soundly based research proposals in this field.
Information is not collected centrally on relevant publicly funded research which may be undertaken by university departments, the health authorities and the health departments, nor on research undertaken by the medical research charities whose role we of course welcome.