§ Mr. Dobsonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will give for each year since 1979 the total amount spent by his Department on (a) research into and (b) the treatment of leukaemia.
§ Mr. NewtonSince 1975 the Department has directly funded a rolling programme of research at the Childhood Cancer Research Group, Oxford which includes research into leukaemia; total expenditure from 1979–80 to 1986–87 was about £1.16 million (1986–87 prices). In addition three further studies have been funded since 1983 arising from the Report on the investigation of the possible increased incidence of Leukaemia in West Cumbria at a total cost of about £158,000. The main Government agency for the promotion of medical research in the United Kingdom is the Medical Research Council which receives its grant-in-aid from the Department of Education and Science.
The Department of Health and Social Security has since 1986 allocated an additional £385,000 per annum to 102W health authorities providing nursing support for the MRC's trials of intensive chemotherapy for childhood leukaemia.
National Health Service expenditure is not analysed in such a way as to enable spending on the treatment of leukaemia to be separately identified.