§ Miss BeggTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how much government funding is provided to groups working to help sufferers of endometriosis. [116362]
§ Jacqui SmithThe Department provides funding to voluntary organisations in the field of women's health through the Section 64 Scheme. The scheme provides funding to voluntary organisations whose activities support Department of Health policy objectives.
Funding is provided to a wide range of general women's health organisations, supporting women with a variety of conditions. The Pennell Initiative for Women's Health has been awarded £7,000 in 2003–04. Women's Health Concern will receive £12,000 in 2003–04. Women's Health will receive a core grant of £15,000 and in addition, a project grant of £10,000 in 2003–04. The Department also provides funding to organisations that focus on specific conditions, such as endometriosis. The National Endometriosis Society (NES) will receive £25,000 from the Department in 2003–04 as a contribution towards the cost of its core activities. In the autumn, the NES and all the other 686W organisations in the women's health field will have the opportunity to apply for further funding under the scheme for the 2004–05 round.
§ Miss BeggTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the level of funding of endometriosis services by health authority area over each of the past 10 years. [116365]
§ Jacqui SmithThis information is not collected centrally. It is for primary care trusts, in partnership with strategic health authorities and other local stakeholders, to determine how best to use their funds to meet national and local priorities for health, tackling health inequalities and modernising services.
§ Miss BeggTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how much funding has been provided for research into endometriosis in each of the last 10 years. [116366]
§ Jacqui SmithThe main Government agency for research into the causes and treatments for disease is the Medical Research Council (MRC), which receives its funding from the Department for Trade and Industry via the Office of Science and Technology. The MRC can provide figures for spend on research relevant to endometriosis only for the last five years and these are shown in the table.
£ million 1997–98 1.7 1998–99 1.8 1999–2000 1.8 2000–01 1.2 2001–02 1.2 These figures cover research on both endometriosis and the general physiology of the endometrium.
The MRC always welcomes high quality applications from the scientific community for support into any aspect of biomedical research and these are judged in open competition with other demands on funding.
The Department of Health funds the National Health Service research and development programme, which aims to identify NHS needs for research and to commission research to meet those needs. Commissioning is undertaken through national programmes of research, including the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Programme. The report of a HTA project costing nearly £0.5 million on the management of menorrhagia was published in February 2003. Menorrhagia is sometimes associated with endometriosis. The report of a £0.3 million HTA project on diagnosis of endometrial abnormality is expected to be published in November 2003.