Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to (a) improve early diagnosis rates and (b) support the (i) development and (ii) availability of treatments for dementia.

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 of Health and Social Care 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. The NIHR has also invested nearly £50 million over five years into the Dementia Trials Network, which seeks to significantly expand the United Kingdom’s early phase clinical trial capabilities in dementia which will support the development of treatments.

To prepare for the new generation of dementia treatments in development, we are working to ensure the diagnostic and treatment capacity, clinical pathway redesign and investment are in place to support the adoption of any new licensed and National Institute for Health and Care Excellence-recommended treatments as soon as possible.