Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding he has allocated to research on (a) childhood cancers and (b) diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma.

Research is crucial in the fight against cancer. The Department invests £1 billion per year in health research through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The NIHR’s cancer research expenditure has risen from £101 million in 2010/11 to £132 million in 2018/19, the largest investment in a disease area.

In May 2018 the Government announced £40 million over five years for brain tumour research as part of the Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission. This includes funding for childhood cancers research and diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma.

Additionally, for the period 2014/15 – 2018/19, the NIHR have undertaken 35 projects into childhood cancer totalling approximately £13.3million.

As with other Government funders of health research, the NIHR does not generally allocate funding for specific disease areas. The level of research spend in a particular area, such as childhood cancers and diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, is driven by factors including scientific potential and the number and scale of successful funding applications.