Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the progress of research on treatments for (a) Alzheimer's and (b) dementia.

The Department funds research into dementia via the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The Government is investing into research on treatments for dementia, such as the £49.9 million NIHR Dementia Trials Network (D-TN), which will deliver a coordinated network of early phase dementia trial sites, including for Alzheimer’s disease. The work undertaken by the NIHR D-TN will be complemented by the £20 million Dementia Clinical Trials Accelerator, designed to position the United Kingdom as the destination of choice for late phase clinical trials in dementia and neurodegenerative diseases.

The Government is also funding the UK Dementia Research Institute (UK DRI), which conducts world-leading discovery science across neurodegenerative diseases and translates knowledge into tools and therapies that make a real, tangible difference. The NIHR is investing £20 million into the UK DRI over four years to enable discoveries to be taken out of the laboratory and into the lives of people that need them.

The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health including dementia. These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients, and health and care services, and its value for money, and scientific quality. In all disease areas, the amount of NIHR funding depends on the volume and quality of scientific activity.