§ Dr. StarkeyTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what Technology Foresight priorities are being taken into account in the forward planning of the Department's scientific research programme. [17463]
§ Ms JowellThe scope of the Department's scientific research programmes is sufficiently broad to encompass many of the recommendations made by the Foresight Programme in general and by the Health and Life Sciences Panel in particular. Foresight principles have been incorporated into the forward planning processes used by the Clinical Horizons Scanning Group. A corporate596W knowledge base on health trends and related information has been developed and is available to provide support for the forward planning of the Department's scientific research programmes.
§ Dr. StarkeyTo ask the Secretary of State for Health in what way the Department's research priorities have been modified in response to Technology Foresight. [17464]
§ Ms JowellThe Central Research and Development Committee has recently recommended that the structure of the centrally funded R and D programmes of the National Health Service should be reconfigured around three broad themes—Health Technology Assessment, Service Delivery and Organisation and New and Emerging Technologies. The latter theme is Foresight related; the full scope of the projects to be included in this new theme has yet to be agreed.