Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy to support the Spending Review submission from the Motor Neurone Disease Association, MND Scotland and the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation which calls for £50 million of funding for motor neurone disease-specific research.

The next Spending Review will set out the Government’s spending plans for health and social care for future years.

Over the past five years, the Department has spent over £10 million on motor neurone disease (MND) research through the National Institute for Health Research. Additionally, UK Research and Innovation, through the Medical Research Council, has spent £49.5 million on MND research over the past five years. This includes research which aims to increase our understanding of the causes and genetic mechanisms of MND. We are currently working on ways to significantly increase further research on dementia and neurodegeneration including medical and care interventions.