§ Mr. Whitakerasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether he will give a list of organisations engaged in cancer research; and whether he will have consultations to co-ordinate such research, and also that research undertaken by other different organisations into a single medical subject.
§ Mr. Goronwy RobertsAn exhaustive list is not available. Cancer research is undertaken in the United Kingdom through the Medical Research Council, Universities, hospitals of the National Health Service and a number of voluntary bodies of which the British Empire Cancer Campaign for Research and the Imperial Cancer Research Fund are the 209W largest. The most fruitful forms of collaboration between research workers are of an informal nature—through publications in the scientific journals, attendance at conferences and other meetings. But one of the Medical Research Council's main functions is to keep all biomedical research under review and to this end it maintains close links with the principal organisations, including the major voluntary bodies, concerned with cancer and other diseases. I am satisfied that these co-ordinating arrangements are fully adequate to prevent undesirable duplication and to ensure the most effective apportionment of total funds available.