Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to (a) pilot and (b) support the adoption of new diagnostic tools for dementia (i) including blood tests and (ii) generally.

The Government is committed to transforming diagnostic services and will support the National Health Service to increase diagnostic capacity to meet the demand for diagnostic services through investment in new capacity, including magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography scanners.

The Department funds research into dementia via the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). Alongside Alzheimer’s Research UK, Alzheimer’s Society and the People’s Postcode Lottery, the NIHR is funding the Blood Biomarker Challenge which seeks to produce the clinical and economic data that could make the case for the use of a blood test in the NHS to support diagnosis of dementia.