Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what funding his Department allocated to dementia research in the 2020-21 financial year; how much funding he plans to allocate to such research in the 2021-22 financial year; and what steps he is taking to increase funding allocated to such research.

The Department funds research on health and social care through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The usual practice of the NIHR is not to ring-fence funds for expenditure on particular topics. The NIHR welcomes research into any aspect of human health, including dementia. In 2018/19, the most recent year for which complete data is available, the NIHR’s total spend was £31.6 million. Total Government spend was £82.9 million. We are looking at ways to boost further research into dementia and to enable spending to increase significantly over the current Parliament. In March 2021, the NIHR launched a highlight notice on dementia which invited proposals for research, including meeting the needs of underserved communities.