§ Lord Morris of Manchesterasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will bring up to date the table of government funding of cancer research included in the Written Answer by Baroness Jay of Paddington on 19 May 1998 (WA 166). [HL1902]
§ Lord Hunt of Kings HeathThe Government fund health and medical research in a number of ways. The Department of Health funds research and development to support its work on policy development and evaluation in health and social care. The department also manages the National Health Service research and development funding which is used to support research and development of relevance to the NHS in hospitals, general practice and other healthcare settings and to fund the NHS research and development programme. In addition, the Medical Research Council (MRC)—which receives most of its income via grant-in-aid from the office of my right 19WA honourable friend the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry—funds medical research as part of the Government's funding of the science and engineering base.
The table given in col. WA 166 gave estimates of expenditure for six different cancers. The latest figures available for Department of Health and MRC expenditure in those six cancers are for financial year 1998–99. The figures are:
- Breast cancer: £9.33 million
- Lung cancer: £1.37 million
- Cervical cancer: £0.58 million
- Prostate cancer: £1.55 million
- Bowel cancer: £5.63 million
- Liver cancer: £0.34 million
Management of the research supported by NHS R&D funding in trusts is devolved and details of expenditure at project level are not collected routinely by the department. The figures provided therefore underestimate the total government investment (although they do now include support funding at the Royal Marsden NHS Trust and for bowel cancer at St. Mark's Hospital in London).
Project details of work directly funded by the department or supported through NHS R&D funding can be found on the National Research Register (NRR). This is available in the Library and most medical libraries on CD Rom and on the Internet: http://www.doh.gov.uk/nrr.htm. The NRR also contains many details of projects/trials funded by the MRC and other funders.