Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing funding for research on antibiotic resistance.

We have not conducted a formal assessment of the potential merits of more funding, beyond those already laid out in the United Kingdom five-year antimicrobial resistance (AMR) national action plan. This is because research on AMR is already a very high priority for research funders. There is already extensive activity in AMR research, by each funder and between funders, to identify key priorities and ensure that these are funded.

The national action plan was published in January 2019 and sets out our commitment to invest in research to better understand the routes of transmission between humans, animals and the environment. This will enable the development of new products and support the kind of inter-disciplinary research that will inform effective interventions and strategies to most benefit front line teams.