§ Lord Kennetasked Her Majesty's Government:
What is the current level of funding, either by the taxpayer or by pharmaceutical companies, of contraception research; how this compares with funding (in real terms) 15 years ago; and, in the light of the Minister for Overseas Development's recent remarks to the effect that "population planning is … desired by hundreds of millions of couples who cannot get it", (House of Commons Deb.14th October 1991, col.18) what improvement in provision is anticipated.
§ Baroness BlatchDuring the last 15 years the Overseas Development Administration has considerably increased its funding of contraception research for developing countries, through its support to the WHO's Human Reproduction Programme. In 1992 it is contributing £2.75 million to this programme, compared with £463,000 in 1977 (at 1992 prices). The UK remains the largest donor to the Human Reproduction Programme.
ODA population assistance continues to increase, totalling over £26 million in 1991. Its support to the United Nations Population Fund has increased by 50 per cent. over the last two years. ODA aims to double the number of countries in which it is supporting major bilateral population initiatives. Support for population activities channelled via UK Non-Governmental Organisations has increased tenfold over five years.
The main government agency for funding medical research in the UK is the Medical Research Council, which receives its grant-in-aid from the Office of Science and Technology. In the financial year 1991– 92 the council spent £456,000 on major contraception research projects. In 1977– 78 (the earliest financial year for which figures are available) it spent £859,000 71WA at 1991– 92 prices on comparable research. However, in 1991– 92 the council also spent 1– 3 million on minor projects—for which comparable earlier year figures are not available—and is funding several major initiatives in basic research which may produce results relevant to contraception. It is essentially for the council itself to decide the future level of its expenditure on contraception research. It is always ready to consider soundly based research proposals in this field in competition with other applications.
The health departments and authorities, universities and medical schools may be funding research on contraception in the UK. Information on this and on research expenditure by the pharmaceutical companies is not collected centrally.