§ Mr. Duncan SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what was the total amount of Government research expenditure on Parkinson's disease in 1996–97; and how many people received treatment for Parkinson's disease in 1996–97. [14001]
§ Mr. HoramFigures for Government research expenditure in 1996–97 are not yet available. However, in 1995–96, the latest year for which figures are available, the Medical Research Council, the main agency through which the Government support biomedical and clinical research, awarded £53.6 million for research in the field of neurosciences and mental health, of which £6.2 million was specifically for research on Parkinson's disease and nerve regeneration.
Information about the number of people with a particular condition treated by the national health service is not collected centrally. However, figures are available for the number of finished consultant episodes. The number of FCEs of admitted patient care, with a primary diagnosis of Parkinson's disease, to NHS hospitals in England during 1994–95, the latest year for which figures are available, is estimated at 10,700.