Cancer Research

HC Deb 18 June 2002 vol 387 cc233-4W

31. Mr. MacDougall

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what criteria the Government use when allocating resourcing to cancer research. [59152]

Ms Blears

Total Government expenditure on research in any given year is not normally allocated in advance to specific diseases. Decisions depend on many variables including the quality of proposals received. By 2003–04, the Government will be spending an additional £20 million a year on the new national health service infrastructure for cancer research. This will mean that more cancer patients will have access to new and experimental treatments. In April 2002, the Government set up the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) in partnership with charities and industry. The NCRI is providing strategic oversight of cancer research across the whole of the United Kingdom.