Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what metrics his Department plans to use to monitor the UK's progress on (a) developing and (b) supporting clinical trials.

The Department publishes a UK Clinical Research Delivery Performance Indicators Report monthly, which is available at the following link:

https://sites.google.com/nihr.ac.uk/thefutureofukclinicalresearch/home/news-updates/performance-indicators-report?erca=1

The metrics of the report include, but are not limited to:

- the proportion of all studies receiving combined regulatory review achieved within 60 days, measured from submission to combined regulatory decision;

- the proportion of commercial contract studies open to recruitment within 60 days of the Health Research Authority’s approval letter, or equivalent process used by the devolved administrations;

- the proportion of commercial contract studies recruiting their first participant within 30 days of the sites opening to recruitment, except where this is not expected in the study milestone plan, for example rare disease studies;

- the proportion of all open studies on track, delivering on time and target; and

- the recruitment to all studies, including all commercial studies.

By monitoring these key performance indicators, the Department is committed to improving clinical trial performance in the United Kingdom.