Medical Research

Lord Kakkar Excerpts

Tuesday 28th March 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Kakkar (CB)]

My Lords, I join others in thanking the noble Lord, Lord Sharkey, for securing and introducing this important debate so effectively. I declare my own interests as chairman of University College London Partners, professor of surgery at University College London, director of the Thrombosis Research Institute and UK business ambassador for healthcare and life sciences.

As the noble Lord indicated, medical research is a great national success story. Its application has been responsible for improving human health over recent decades, advancing clinical outcomes and ensuring that the workforce is healthier and therefore more productive. The life sciences sector, after financial services, represents one of the most important in our country. As we heard, this is because, over decades, our nation has built a unique ecosystem of our fine National Health Service, four of the top 10 biomedical universities in the world, two major pharmaceutical companies based here in the United Kingdom, more than 3,500 small and medium-sized enterprises in the life science and med-tech sectors, and countless very effective medical research charities. There is also the capacity for our nation to collaborate internationally in medical research and seek funding to support those efforts, and the ability to attract international talent to come and contribute to our national medical research outputs.

In the current context there is some concern because there is much change on the horizon. We already heard about the potential impact of Brexit on a national medical research strategy. There is the creation of UK Research and Innovation. This new and important structure will result in differences in the way that dual support for medical research is applied in future. Of course, cost pressures in the NHS will have an impact on potential NHS contributions to medical research in future.

Going forward, how will this delicate but finely structured ecosystem be co-ordinated with all these new challenges? Will these issues be addressed as part of the life sciences section of the industrial strategy? For more than a decade we have had the Office for Strategic Coordination of Health Research. Will it continue, and will it be responsible for ensuring that the funding available in UKRI for medical research is appropriately co-ordinated with the substantial funding now available in the National Health Service through the National Institute for Health Research? That type of strategic co-ordination was an important objective of the Office for Strategic Coordination of Health Research and should be maintained in future once UKRI is established.

Finally, what assessment is being made of the delivery of the obligation set on the Secretary of State for Health and all other elements of the NHS to promote research in the National Health Service? This is a vital element of the Health and Social Care Act 2012. What assessment has been made of the ability of the NHS to deliver on that particular objective and obligation, and how will that be monitored and protected in future?