Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the adequacy of funding levels for research into the (a) detection and (b) treatment of heart diseases.

The Department funds research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR funds research in response to proposals received from scientists rather than allocating funding to specific disease areas. The NIHR continues to welcome high quality applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including the detection and treatment of cardiovascular and heart diseases.

Over the past five financial years, from 2019/20 to 2023/24, the NIHR has invested £145.4 million on cardiovascular and heart diseases and stroke research directly through NIHR research programmes. Our wider investments in NIHR infrastructure, by strengthening specialist facilities, workforce, and support services to enable research in the health and care system, have enabled significant cardiovascular and heart diseases and stroke research funded by other funders to take place.