Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, in interventional commercial clinical trials, what the average time taken for (1) regulatory review, (2) study opening, and (3) recruitment of the first participant, was in the reporting period used to support their 15 April statement that the 150 day target had been met.

The UK Clinical Research Delivery key performance indicators report brings together data to monitor the delivery of globally competitive clinical research across the United Kingdom.

The report includes several indicators relating to study set-up. Indicator 1 measures the time it takes for commercial interventional clinical trials to recruit their first participant from the date that initial clinical trial authorisation is submitted. The measure links the different stages of the study set-up process, such as regulatory review, study opening, and recruitment of the first participant.

The information requested is shown in the following tables, as an unpublished subset of the statistics that were published on 15 April 2026 as part of the UK Clinical Research Delivery key performance indicators report, a copy of which is attached. The information is taken from studies held on the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Research Delivery Network’s Central Portfolio Management System.

The following table shows the average number of days taken for each of the stages of the study set-up process that makes up indicator 1 of the report:

Studies are included where the application was submitted between 1 April 2025 and 30 September 2025. This is a total of 73 studies. The median days taken for each of the stages are calculated independently and therefore do not sum to the overall median for days from submission to first participant. These data were processed and assured by the NIHR in the same way as those provided to the Department for publication in April 2026 of 150-day set-up performance, using established data checking processes within the NIHR's Research Delivery Network data and analytics and specialty teams. The same reporting period was used to support the 15 April 2026 press release Government drives forward its 150-day clinical trial target, a copy of which is attached.

The Department is committed to turbocharging clinical research and delivering better patient care, to make the UK a world-leading destination for clinical research. We are working to fast-track clinical trials to drive global investment into life sciences, improve health outcomes, and accelerate the development of medicines and therapies of the future.