Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether cost-benefit analysis has been performed on the potential return on investment of funding ring-fenced biomedical research into ME/CFS to address economic inactivity due to long-term sickness.

No specific assessment or cost-benefit analysis of the kind described has been carried out, but we routinely monitor innovative approaches and treatments adopted by our counterparts overseas to see what lessons there may be for our own health services.

Regarding ring-fenced funding, I refer the Hon. Member to the answer provided on 5 November 2025 in response to Question 86002, and on regional tertiary specialist centres, I refer him to the answers provided on 29 April and 6 July in response to Questions 124134 and 13299.