Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, CP 1337, published on 23 June 2025, what progress he has made on doubling commercial interventional trial participants by the end of 2025.

The Department is monitoring progress on commercial interventional trial participation via the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The number of participants recruited to commercial interventional trials in the United Kingdom was 21,108 in 2024/25 and 4,635 in the first quarter of 2025/26.

To ensure the UK’s international competitiveness and to attract more commercial interventional trials to the UK, the Government has implemented a Study Set-Up Plan through the 4-nation UK Clinical Research Delivery (UKCRD) programme. The second and final phase of the UKCRD Study Set-Up Plan was completed in June 2025, as part of efforts to cut clinical trials study set up times to 150 days by March 2026.

The NIHR is also supporting increased participation in clinical trials with the online service 'Be Part of Research', making it easier for people to find and take part in health and care research and for researchers to recruit suitable participants.