§ Mr. Carter-Jonesasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what arrangements exist for ensuring that the results of publicly funded research, including research funded by the Medical Research Council, or the knowledge and information obtained from it, is made available to his Department or to the National Health Service; and whether it is usual practice to make such research available, either to his Department or more generally, even where there is no formal requirement for this to be done.
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§ Sir George YoungResearchers whose work is funded by the Department are encouraged to publish information about their research through learned journals and other media. They are required to report the results of their research to the Department, for consideration by the appropriate research liaison group or other "customers"; and this information may be made available to the National Health Service, sometimes forming the basis of guidance material, or more generally.
Information about the research funded by the Department, and its results, is available in the following publications:
The DHSS Handbook of Research and Development, published annually by HMSO;Hospital Abstracts", published monthly by HMSO;Current Literature on Health Services" published monthly and available from the DHSS Library;Annual Reports on Research and Development Work on Equipment for the Disabled, under section 22 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970, published by HMSO;Health Equipment Information", published by the Health Departments and the Welsh Office;Nursing Research Abstracts", published quarterly by the Index of Nursing Research at DHSS;Social Service Abstracts", hitherto published by DHSS but henceforth to be published by HMSO.333W Results of research supported by the Medical Research Council are made known mainly through publications in the medical and scientific literature. In addition, there is close day-to-day contact between the Health Departments and the Medical Research Council and the Departments' officers serve on both the council and its research boards.