Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is the breakdown of spend by government departments going to bodies or projects aimed at translating health research into practical innovations.

The Department of Health and Social Care funds and enables research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). In 2022/23, the NIHR budget was approximately £1.25 billion and enabling translation of research into practice is embedded across multiple workstreams in the NIHR portfolio. Its close working with the NHS England Accelerated Access Collaborative also promotes the adoption and diffusion of proven innovations and the decommissioning of ineffective or superseded interventions. The Innovative Licensing and Access Pathway, launched in 2021, also aims to accelerate the time to market by streamlining the regulatory and access processes, particularly for innovative and promising medicines, ensuring that they reach patients more efficiently and rapidly.

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), funded by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, funds health research that translates into practical innovations across its councils and portfolio of investments, actively working to support researchers as they transition discoveries through translation, towards patient benefits. Through Innovate UK alone, UKRI has invested approximately £930 million in translational health programmes.