Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to fund research to improve the care and treatment of people with the limb girdle 2b form of Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

The Department's National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including muscular dystrophy. These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality.

Research relating to limb-girdle muscular dystrophy is being funded by the NIHR Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre. Current funding for NIHR Biomedical Research Centres ends in March 2017.

In September the Government announced the largest ever investment into health research - £816 million over five years from April 2017 for 20 NIHR Biomedical Research Centres in England. We would expect some of this investment to support muscular dystrophy research.

The NIHR Clinical Research Network is currently recruiting patients to a study of acceptance and commitment therapy for muscle disease. Limb-girdle muscular dystrophy is one of four muscle diseases included in the study.