Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help tackle barriers to (a) teenagers and (b) young adults accessing clinical trials; and if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of this on UK life sciences.

To maximise our potential to be a world leader and develop a more competitive, efficient and accessible clinical research system, the Department is committed to implementing recommendations from the Lord O'Shaughnessy independent review of commercial clinical trials in full.

The Department is committed to ensuring clinical trials are people-centred and more accessible, including for teenagers and young adults. For example, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), funded by the Department, provides an online service called 'Be Part of Research' which promotes participation in health and care research by allowing users to search for relevant studies and register their interest. Young adults aged 18 or over, can consent to be matched to and contacted about relevant studies.

The Department through the NIHR also funds research infrastructure provides research expertise, specialist facilities, a research delivery workforce and support services, necessary for the delivery of research nationally, including studies involving teenagers and young adults.

There is currently no assessment planned on the impact of barriers to teenagers and young adults accessing clinical trials on life sciences in the United Kingdom.