Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, following the publication of the study on the International Life Sciences Institute "Are industry-funded charities promoting “advocacy-led studies” or “evidence-based science”?, whether they classify the International Life Sciences Institute as an industry lobby group or a scientific health charity.

The Department funds research via the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The NIHR does not itself classify any organisation in terms of charitable status or lobby group. The NIHR regards a charity as a specific type of voluntary organisation which must conform to the regulations set out in charity law particularly the Charities Act 2011. Charity is a legal status for an organisation, not a legal form or organisational structure.

Any organisation which considers that it can carry out high-quality clinical, applied health or social care research is likely to be eligible for Departmental, NIHR-funded research programmes, either directly or with a partner. There are specific guidance documents setting out eligibility criteria for the NIHR’s programmes which include information on partnership working, funding mechanism and contractual obligations including reporting and disclosure of conflicts of interest.