§ Mr. Craigenasked the Secretary of State for Scotland how much has been spent on research in Scotland into the problems of arthritis and rheumatism during the last year for which figures are available.
§ Mr. Harry EwingThe major research efforts in this area are provided by the Medical Research Council and the Arthritis and Rheumatism Council on a United 259W Kingdom basis. Universities are also involved, but much of their work, like that supported by the Medical Research Council, is at the basic research level in fields such as microbiology and immunology which may be relevant to more than one disease or group of diseases, so that attribution of expenditure is not possible. My Department is currently spending about £8,000 per year, and the Scottish Hospital Endowments Research Trust about £6,000 per year, in support of research projects partly or wholly related to arthritis and rheumatism.