Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the policy paper entitled Full government response to the Lord O'Shaughnessy review into commercial clinical trials, last updated on 8 December 2023, what her Department's planned timetable is for expanding the national contract value review programme to phase 1 and 2a clinical trials.

The National Contract Value Review (NCVR) process applies to commercial clinical studies. NHS England is working in partnership with the devolved administrations, the National Institute for Health and Care Research, and other partners, to pilot the use of the NCVR process for phase I and IIa of commercial clinical trials. The ambition is to make the use of NCVR for phase I and IIa of commercial clinical trials mainstream from October 2024.