§ Mr. DonohoeTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what criteria are applied by her Department in making funding available for research into medical conditions.
§ Dr. MawhinneyThe main agency through which the Government support biomedical and clinical research is the Medical Research Council, which receives its grant in aid from the office of my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. The MRC is an independent body deciding what research to support on its own expert judgement. The council is always willing to consider for support soundly based new scientific proposals in competition with other applications.
The purpose of the Department's centrally commissioned programme of research is to secure a scientific basis for departmental policies, with an emphasis on public health, policy on health services and personal social services rather than on medical conditions. The principles governing the commissioning of departmental research are set out in its code of practice for the commissioning and management of research and development, copies of which will be placed in the Library.
The strategic framework for the national health service research and development strategy, which is co-ordinated through the Department, is set by the central research and development committee. NHS issues, appropriate for research and development, are being identified in relation to six overlapping perspectives, one of which is disease related. Within each of these perspectives, broad areas are defined on the basis of burden of disease, service relevance, timeliness and likely benefits of research.