Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to incorporate clinical trials as a performance metric within the NHS to encourage clinicians to prioritise research.

As outlined in the 10-Year Health Plan and Life Sciences Sector Plan, the Government is committed to providing full transparency on clinical trial performance by publishing a monthly scorecard for the National Health Service on trust-level clinical trial performance, in addition to wider measures to encourage clinicians to prioritise research through the UK Clinical Research Delivery (UKCRD) Programme.

The four-nation UKCRD programme brings together delivery partners and key stakeholders to create a faster, more efficient, more accessible, and more innovative clinical research delivery system in the United Kingdom.

In April 2025, the Department began publishing monthly key performance indicators on commercial clinical trial set up performance for all NHS trusts in England, as part of the four-nation UKCRD programme Study Set Up Plan.

Trust level data on clinical trials study set up is being published monthly alongside the UKCRD’s Key Performance Indicator Report to provide an additional monthly snapshot of site-level commercial study set-up performance.

In May 2025, NHS England wrote a letter to NHS providers requiring board-level reporting of research activity and income, with scrutiny of the UKCRD Programme’s site-level performance metrics for study set-up. NHS England will publish revised guidance on research financial management later in 2025.