Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of allocating additional funding to support research into chronic urinary tract infections in Surrey.

The Department funds research on health and social care through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and social care, including urinary tract infections (UTIs). These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made based on the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money, and scientific quality. Funding opportunities are openly published on the NIHR website, which is at the following link:

https://www.nihr.ac.uk/

Universities and other stakeholders can propose research topics to the NIHR via the following link:

https://www.nihr.ac.uk/get-involved/suggest-a-research-topic

The development of new products to diagnose infections more accurately is essential to ensure we can continue to treat infections and protect public health. NHS England is supporting research into newer, more accurate point-of-care tests for UTIs, such as via the Toucan study. More information on the study is available at the following link:

https://www.phctrials.ox.ac.uk/recruiting-trials/toucan-platform-for-uti-diagnostic-evaluation