Lord Mendelsohn

At the International Investment Summit, the Prime Minister announced that the Office for Investment would be scaled up to help secure the investment that drive will growth, job creation, and increase productivity across the UK. This brings together DBT and HMT's investment functions into a joint single unit with clear No.10 sponsorship, tasked with promoting the UK to investors and businesses around the world and attracting more investment into the UK. It will be proactive and entrepreneurial, delivering ambitious projects, and the centre of excellence for attracting and growing investments aligned to the Industrial Strategy and HMG Missions.

Increasing levels of foreign direct investment (FDI) into the UK is a priority for this government, given its critical role attracting capital into key growth sectors, creating jobs, and stimulating wider economic growth. The Department for Business and Trade works with all investor-facing business units to deliver support for the highest-value, highest-impact FDI projects into the UK.

Internally, the Department uses a wide suite of metrics, reflecting government priorities and investment impact, to ensure the delivery of our services is aligned to desired outcomes and ambitions.

Office for National Statistics figures show that the UK spent 2.77% of its GDP on research and development in 2022, placing it 11^th amongst OECD countries. The trajectory for public spending on R&D from 2026/27 onward will be set at the Spending Review next year. The Government is focused on ensuring that public investment in R&D drives effective growth outcomes, including growing private sector R&D investment.

Innovate UK supports research and development by SMEs through a diverse range of programmes including the Catapult Network, Launchpads, Investor Partnerships and Business Growth. Over the last 2 years, Innovate UK has awarded £5.2 billion funding to more than 7000 businesses, of which 86% were SMEs.

The Regulatory Innovation Office has been established to update regulation and speed up approvals, allowing SMEs to bring products and services to market faster.

The government also grants R&D tax reliefs rates. Companies doing qualifying R&D continue to receive a cash value of between £15 to £27 for every £100 spent on R&D.

The Government has been clear that there should be a national cancer plan, and we are now in discussions about what form it should take, including how we will ensure that cancer patients across England receive the most optimal treatment. We will develop and publish the 10-Year Health Plan before publishing a new national cancer plan, and will provide updates in due course.

It is a priority for the Government to support the National Health Service to diagnose cancer, including blood cancer, as early and quickly as possible, and to treat it faster, to improve outcomes for all patients across England.

The Department is committing to this by improving waiting times for cancer treatment, starting by delivering an extra 40,000 operations, scans, and appointments each week, to support faster diagnosis and access to treatment. In addition, NHS England has implemented non-specific symptom pathways for patients who present with non-specific symptoms, or combinations thereof, that can indicate several different cancers. This includes leukaemia, which can present non-specific symptoms, such as unexpected weight loss and night sweats. From NHS England’s national evaluation, blood cancers are one of the most common cancer types diagnosed through these pathways.

The Department is committed to implementing the recommendations of Lord O'Shaughnessy’s review into commercial clinical trials, making sure that the United Kingdom leads the world in clinical trials, and ensuring that innovative, lifesaving treatments are accessible to NHS patients, including those with blood cancer.

In September 2024, NHS England announced a new targeted treatment, Quizartinib, to be prescribed to newly diagnosed patients with a specific type of leukaemia, boosting their chance of remission and long-term survival, made available through NHS England’s Cancer Drugs Fund, which fast-tracks new innovative cancer treatments into standard care. This followed a previous announcement in August 2024, announcing the new treatment, Zanubrutini, for those with marginal zone lymphoma, which could halt the progression of their cancer and provide an alternative to further rounds of chemotherapy.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) makes recommendations on whether all new medicines, including cancer medicines, should be routinely funded by the National Health Service based on an assessment of their costs and benefits. The NHS in England is legally required to fund medicines recommended by the NICE, and cancer medicines are eligible for funding from the Cancer Drugs Fund from the point of positive draft NICE guidance.

In determining whether a medicine represents a clinically and cost effective use of NHS resources, the NICE takes into account the impact of new medicines on health outcomes and the health and care system, including where costs may be incurred and where savings may be realised.

No assessment has been made of infusion capacity within the National Health Service for blood cancer treatments. However, it is a priority for the Government to support the NHS to diagnose and treat cancer, including blood cancer, as early and quickly as possible. The Department is committing to this by delivering an extra 40,000 operations, scans, and appointments each week, to support increased capacity.

The National Disease Registration Service, through the National Cancer Registration and Analysis Services, collects information on how many people in England have blood cancer, labelled as haematological neoplasms. This data supports service provision and commissioning in the National Health Service, clinical audits, and public health and epidemiological research, all of which contributes to improved outcomes for cancer patients, including blood cancer patients.

The Department is committed to implementing the recommendations of Lord O'Shaughnessy’s review into commercial clinical trials, making sure that the United Kingdom leads the world in clinical trials, and ensuring that innovative, lifesaving treatments are accessible to NHS patients, including those with blood cancer.

Guidance from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) states that there are very few individuals who cannot receive the COVID-19 vaccines approved in the United Kingdom. Anyone concerned about possible reactions to a vaccine should in the first instance speak to the clinician responsible for their care for advice. Published UKHSA clinical guidance for health professionals and immunisation practitioners on COVID-19 vaccination includes guidance for the management of patients with a history of allergy, including circumstances where a person may be referred to an expert allergist and, after a review of the individual’s risks and benefits of vaccination, and where it is indicated, they could then be vaccinated in hospital under clinical supervision. NHS England will continue to follow this clinical guidance and offer the appropriate vaccination to those who are eligible, including those who are immunocompromised, under expert supervision in a hospital setting, where appropriate.