§ Mr. FearnTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Services if Her Majesty's Government has any plans to increase the amount of money available for research into and treatment of allergy-related illness.
§ Mrs. CurrieIt is for health authorities to decide how much of their resources they will allocate to the treatment of any particular condition, including allergy-related illness.
The Government are already supporting research in this area. The main Government-funded agency for the promotion of medical and related biological research is the Medical Research Council, which receives its grant-in-aid from the Department of Education and Science. I understand that the council is currently supporting research on allergies in 20 centres at a total cost in 1986–87 of £540,000. The council is always willing to consider well-founded proposals for further research in competition with proposals in other fields.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food is funding studies into intolerance reactions to food at a cost of £500,000 over the next three years as a follow-up to the work already completed on intolerance reactions to food additives. The Department of Health and Social Security has awarded an annual grant of £10,000 for the years 1987–88 to 1989–90 to the Asthma Society and Friends of the Asthma Research Council.