Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has allocated funding to the research on neonatal herpes.

The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and is the largest public funder of health research in the United Kingdom.

The NIHR funds a range of research in maternal and neonatal health focussing on the safety of maternity and neonatal services, and the national maternity ambition to halve maternal deaths, stillbirths and neonatal deaths and brain injury by 2025.

The NIHR is not currently funding any specific research into neonatal herpes but it welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including neonatal herpes. These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality. In all disease areas, the amount of NIHR funding depends on the volume and quality of scientific activity.