Tuberculosis (Hansard, 25 January 1993)

§ Mr. Campbell-Savours

To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what clinical research is carried out in the United Kingdom into tuberculosis; at what institutions; and at what cost.

	NDPBs	Health Service bodies	Total NDPBs and Health Service bodies
Year	Total	Total staff	Total gross expenditure £ million	Total	Total staff	Total expenditure £ million	Total	Total staff	Total expenditure £ million
1979	2,167	217,000	6,150	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
1982	1,810	205,500	8,330	n/a	n/	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
1983	1,691	196,700	9,940	261	1,072,300	14,350	1,952	1,269,000	24,290
1984	1,681	141,200	7,280	259	1,080,300	15,420	1,940	1,221,500	22,700
1985	1,654	138,300	7,770	266	1,071,100	17,050	1,920	1,209,400	24,820
1986	1,658	146,300	8,240	355	1,055,500	14,160	2,013	1,201,800	22,400
1987	1,643	148,700	9,100	356	1,047,600	14,350	1,999	1,196,300	23,450
1988	1,648	134,600	9,450	359	1,027,400	15,500	2,007	1,162,000	24,950
1989	1,555	118,300	9,410	359	1,035,100	17,020	1,914	1,153,500	26,430
1990	1,539	117,500	11,870	355	1,029,200	19,370	1,894	1,146,700	31,240
1991	1,444	116,400	13,080	411	1,026,300	20,770	1,855	1,142,700	33,850
Percentage change 1979–91	-33.4	-46.4	+112.7	+57.5	¹-4.3	¹+44.7	¹-5.0	¹-10.0	¹+39.4
¹ Since 1983.

n/a—Not available.

548W

§ Mr. Robert Jackson

The main agency through which the Government support biomedical and clinical research is the Medical Research Council, which receives its grant-in-aid from this Department. The MRC is an independent body deciding what research to support on its own expert judgment.

In the last financial year 1991–92, the council's expenditure for research directly relevant to tuberculosis was £808,000. This supported basic research at its own MRC tuberculosis and related infections unit at the Hammersmith hospital, and through grants to researchers at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the Public Health Laboratory Service, London, and the university of Leicester. A further £327,000 was spent in 1991–92 on projects which may, in part, be relevant to the study of tuberculosis.

The MRC is not currently funding any research into tuberculosis directly relevant to patients, but the council is always willing to consider for support soundly based new scientific proposals in competition with other applications.

Research is also undertaken by higher education institutions, but details are not available centrally.