§ Mr. McNamaraTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what has been the amount of money spent on medical research for each of the last five years by his Department; and what are the spending proposals for the next five years. [33324]
§ Ms JowellThe Department funds a wide range of health services research which includes medical research. However, the Department's support for medical research is not accounted for separately. Expenditure on National Health Service research and development and on R&D in the health and social services, for the past five years is given in the table; projected spend is also included where available. The NHS R&D levy was first created in April 1996 and figures for NHS R&D prior to this are not available on the same basis.
The Department also funds research through the non-departmental public bodies and from other smaller budgets within the Department. Details of this research are contained in the Department' s publication "Summary of Department of Health R&D in Non-Departmental Public Bodies and Divisions Outside RDD" (September 1997), copies of which are available in the Library. The Department also contributes to the Biomedical and Health Research programme, part of the European Community's overall research programme.
Departmental expenditure is also detailed in the "Forward Look of Government-funded Science, Engineering and Technology" (HMSO) published by the Office of Science and Technology, copies of which are available in the Library.
238W
R&D spend in the Department of Health from 1993 £ million 1Spending Year DH policy related R&D NHS R&D Levy (from April 1996) 1993–94 23.5 — 1994–95 24.4 — 1995–96 24.5 — 1996–97 28.5 431.8 1997–98 (estimate) 25.4 425.3 1998–99 (plan) 28.4 423.6 1 Figures are outturn expenditure, except where indicated.
§ Mr. McNamaraTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how much was spent by each European Union member state on central government-funded medical research in each of the last five years. [33326]
§ Ms JowellThe Department of Health does not hold information on other European Union member states' central government expenditure on medical research. The Statistical Office of the European Communities, EUROSTAT, publishes annual statistics on research and development spend in EU member states which includes some information on medical research in the breakdown of government research and development spend. The most recent information is available in "Research and Development: Annual Statistics 1997" EUROSTAT, published by The Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.
§ Mr. McNamaraTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what are the criteria adopted by his Department in assessing the cost/benefit of each medical research project. [33325]
§ Ms JowellIn assessing research and development priorities the Department considers the relevance and impact of any topic on the health of the population. Through consultation mechanisms it seeks to support research which is feasible, of good quality, likely to produce value for money for the National Health Service and result in benefits to patient care. The main principles on which decisions for selecting projects are carried out are:
- burden of disease and potential benefits to patients
- relevance to NHS and government policies
- value for money to NHS and public
- appropriateness of study design and research methodology
- well defined protocol linked to peer review
- capability of the research terms
- Research Ethics Committee approval where appropriate.