Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions his Department had in advance of the decision to end the independent production of the annual report to Parliament on research and development work relating to assistive technology and to reduce the scope of that report.

Section 22 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970 sets out the following requirement:

“The Secretary of State shall as respects each year lay before Parliament a report on the progress made during that year in research and development work carried out by or on behalf of any Minister of the Crown in relation to equipment that might increase the range of activities and independence or well-being of disabled persons, and in particular such equipment that might improve the indoor and outdoor mobility of such persons.”

In recent years the report has been produced by the Foundation for Assistive Technology, and this contract with the Department expired in June 2014.

The Department plans to lay the 2013-14 report before Parliament before the summer recess.

The Department has to deliver change in a climate of continuing fiscal challenge and constraint on public spending, and the approach to reporting on assistive technology research and development is aligned with this. The Department does not therefore plan to invite tenders for production of Section 22 reports from 2014-15 and will produce future reports on a smaller scale and of sufficient quality to meet the statutory requirement. This will be done in-house at no additional cost.

As the Government will continue to meet the statutory requirement, no specific discussions have taken place about production of reports from 2014-15.