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 help reduce regional disparities in health research funding; and if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of funding distribution on a) patient outcomes and b) economic growth in regions such as North Yorkshire.

The Department funds health and care research via its research operational arm, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), across England. The Department is committed to ensuring that research is inclusive and representative of the population geographically and demographically. Inclusion is a core priority for NIHR and in November 2024, the Department made equity, diversity, and inclusion a condition of NIHR funding for all domestic research awards.

The NIHR is taking a number of steps to secure equitable allocation of health research funding including targeted programme design, long‑term capacity building in under‑served regions, such as new regional commercial research delivery centres, and place‑based research partnerships. In addition, from this April the NIHR’s Research Delivery Network, which supports all National Health Service trusts in England to deliver research, implemented a new national funding allocation model for NHS support costs and research delivery which will reduce regional variations in health research delivery investment.

Embedding research into healthcare systems leads to patients benefits such as better health outcomes, access to life-saving treatments, and less healthcare use. Through the process of trial participation, participants can access potentially life-saving technological or pharmaceutical interventions to treat or prevent morbidity, and mortality odds for research-active NHS trusts are 5% lower.

NIHR research is a powerful engine for economic growth, supporting thousands of high-value jobs across our life sciences sector and attracting crucial investment into the UK as well as delivering better health care. For every £1 invested by the Government, NIHR research delivers a return of over £13 in economic benefit to the nation.