Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact on future levels of antibiotic multiple resistance, and the anticipated resulting cost to the NHS, of the decrease over the last 20 years in the proportion of clinical academics working on antimicrobial resistance.

No such assessment has been made.

The Government is committed to tackling antimicrobial resistance (AMR) through delivery of the United Kingdom’s Confronting antimicrobial resistance 2024 to 2029 national action plan, a copy of which is attached. This includes action on surveillance, stewardship, infection prevention and innovation.

Through the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR), the Department invests in building research expertise and capacity, specialist facilities, and support services to support research across all aspects of human health, including AMR. Available data shows that from 2009, the NIHR has supported 55 personal awards for researchers working on AMR related research.

The two Occupational Safety and Health Consultants Register reports, both of which are attached, highlight the need to increase clinical academic capacity across professions, strengthen routes into research careers, and create the conditions in which research can be sustained across professions and settings. In response, the Department, through the NIHR, has worked with the devolved administrations and other funders to strengthen the research workforce pipeline by mapping the training offer across major research funders to identify gaps and improve coordination and launching the Clinical Future Leadership Fellowships Programme, aligned to UK Research and Innovation, Cancer Research UK, and British Heart Foundation.

To further strengthen the research workforce, the NIHR, NHS England, and wider delivery partners are taking forward actions set out in the Research workforce update for England, a copy of which is attached, which was published in July 2026. These actions will strengthen research career pathways and support research capability across health, public health, and social care settings, helping to develop a sustainable and inclusive research workforce for the future.