Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure patients with dementia continue to receive timely access to new treatments after Britain leaves the EU.

The Implementation Plan for the 2020 Challenge on Dementia 2020 highlights our continuing global leadership role on dementia, stressing the importance of working closely with our international partners, including the World Health Organization, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the World Dementia Council and countries within the G7, European Union and beyond.

At a summit in December 2013, the then G8 countries agreed a new international approach to dementia research to realise the ambition to identify a cure or disease modifying therapy by 2025 and to increase collectively and significantly their funding for dementia research.

The Government has doubled research spending on dementia, with a commitment to maintain this level of spending at £60 million a year to 2020, with an ambition for overall spending on research from all sectors to double by 2025. Much of this investment is in research to better understand the nature of dementia, to inform development of future treatments and ways to prevent the onset of the condition.

The Government remains committed to tackling dementia domestically and internationally. We will ensure that the 2020 Challenge on Dementia is delivered in full so that, by 2020, England is the best place in the world for dementia care and support, as well as for undertaking research into dementia and other neurodegenerative diseases.