§ Tim LoughtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how much funding his Department is making 631W available for research into kidney disease in 2002; and of this how much is to go to (a) companies and (b) charities. [53319]
§ Jacqui SmithThe main Government agency for research into the causes and treatments for disease in the Medical Research Council (MRC). The MRC receives its funding via the Department of Trade and Industry. The MRC's expenditure on kidney disease in 2001–02 was £1.9 million.
The Department funds research to support policy and the delivery of effective practice in health and social care. The Department's policy research programme is spending £87,380 on kidney disease projects in 2002–03. The Department's health technology assessment programme is spending £71,210 on kidney disease projects in 2002–03.
In addition, the Department allocates funds to the national health service to support research commissioned by the research councils and charities. Management of the research supported by NHS research and development (R and D) funding is devolved, and details of the NHS expenditure related to this research are not held centrally. NHS R and D funding does not support companies' research.
§ Tim LoughtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many(a) African-Caribbean and (b) Asian people in the United Kingdom have suffered from kidney disease in each year since 1997; and what the survival rate is. [53318]
§ Jacqui SmithThe source of information on the ethnicity of kidney patients is the UK renal registry. Submission of data is voluntary and coverage by all units in England is not yet universal. In those units that submitted data in 2000 an average 3.3 per cent. of all new adult patients were from the African-Caribbean minority ethnic group and 9.7 per cent. were Asian people. A breakdown of adult patients continuing to receive renal replacement therapy shows that 3.7 per cent. were from the African-Caribbean minority ethnic group and 10.1 per cent. were from the Asian community. Information on survival broken down into ethnic groups is not yet available.