Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to allocate funding to innovative diagnostics to tackle antimicrobial resistance.

The United Kingdom’s 2024 to 2029 antimicrobial resistance (AMR) national action plan (NAP) highlights the importance of accurate diagnostic testing to guide effective antibiotic use.

Outcome six of the NAP commits to cross-sector working to develop diagnostics as a tool to tackle AMR. The Department, through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), has invested over £16 million into programme funding for AMR diagnostics research. The Department also funds the NIHR HealthTech Research Centres, which accelerate development of healthcare technologies, including diagnostics.