Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps he has taken to increase research funding for mental health.

The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). In 2020/21, the NIHR’s expenditure on mental health research was approximately £109 million. The NIHR has recently invested an additional £30 million in a Mental Health Research Initiative to address the disparity between regional needs and mental health research activity. This has funded more than 100 new mental health projects in areas of unmet need across the NIHR’s research infrastructure. The NIHR is exploring the provision of further support to improve research capacity and capability in regions with low research activity and high unmet need. The NIHR’s funding is available through open competition and researchers are encouraged to submit applications in this area.