HC Deb 14 January 1980 vol 976 cc569-71W
Mr. Michael Brown

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what research is being done in the United Kingdom into motor neurone disease; and what support is being given from public funds to this research.

Mr. Macfarlane

The Medical Research Council supports a number of in England and Wales continuing full-time education in schools, universities and public sector further education establishments is provisionally estimated as 30 per cent. for 1978–79, the latest figure available, and was the same in each of the years 1976–77 and 1977–78.

Mr. Richard Wainwright

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what is the current percentage of young people in (a) West Yorkshire and (b) Greater Manchester, remaining at school after the age of 16 years; and how these figures compare with those for the past five years.

Dr. Boyson

In January 1979—the latest date for which information is available—and for the previous five years, the percentages of pupils remaining at maintained secondary schools beyond the compulsory school age were as follows:

research projects on motor neurone disease. Work is in progress at the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases on the topography of the spinal cord and pathways associated with the control of movement. Studies of the development in animals of neurological abnormalities, with feaures similar to those found in motor neurone disease, are being carried out in the department of physiology, University College, London; and a wide-ranging programme of research into muscular disease in man and animals is being supported at the Regional Neurological Centre, Newcastle upon Tyne. Research in the department of anatomy and embryology, University College, London, is aimed at determining the mechanisms involved in the development of different types of motor units; the neural control of muscle spindle activity is being investigated at St. Thomas's hospital medical school.

The cost of this research was approximately £136,000 in the financial year 1978–79. A grant has recently been awarded to the Royal postgraduate medical school at Hammersmith for studies on cellular sensitivity in neurological disease—including motor neurone disease—to agents causing DNA damage.

In addition to its support of research directly relevant to motor neurone disease, the council also supports a considerable volume of research on the structure and function of the nervous system, which may yield results relevant to furthering understanding of this disease.