Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to ensure that dementia research is not disrupted by the covid-19 outbreak; and if he will make a statement.
The Government remains strongly committed to supporting research into dementia and the United Kingdom research community is playing a significant role in the global effort to find a cure or a major disease-modifying treatment by 2025.
The Department’s National Institute for Health Research published a framework in May to support the restarting of research paused due to COVID-19 which is available at the following link:
https://www.nihr.ac.uk/documents/restart-framework/24886
The NIHR is supporting the research community to amend study protocols for COVID-19 security. The NIHR published guidance in October that NIHR-funded research staff should not be deployed to front line duties except in exceptional circumstances.