Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make it his policy to double research funding for Motor Neurone Disease.

The Department funds research mainly through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The Medical Research Council (MRC), an independent research funding body which receives its grant in aid from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy also funds medical research.

The usual practice of the NIHR and of the MRC is not to ring-fence funds for expenditure on particular topics: research proposals in all areas compete for the funding available. 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, value for money and scientific quality.

The MRC currently spends approximately £5.3 million per annum on research relating to Motor Neurone Disease (MND). The MRC, as part of the Network of Centres of Excellence in Neurodegeneration, has recently made available up to £1 million to support research in the United Kingdom.

Spend by the NIHR in the Health Research Classification System (HRCS) health category ‘neurological’ has increased from £29.9 million in 2010/11 to £52.6 million in 2015/16 (the latest year for which data is available). There are no HRCS health sub-categories such as for MND or other specific neurological conditions, and information on total annual NIHR spend on research into treating MND is not held.