Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking or plan to take to increase the volume of clinical research undertaken within NHS England.

The Department funds research and research infrastructure, which supports patients and the public to participate in high-quality research across the United Kingdom, through the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR).

Development and delivery of research in the pharmaceutical sector is supported and enabled nationwide through NIHR infrastructure, including the NIHR Research Delivery Network, the NIHR Clinical Research Facilities, the NIHR Biomedical Research Centres, and the newly designated NIHR Commercial Research Delivery Centres. These all support the delivery of clinical research through facilities, staff resource, collaborations, and funding.

In order to maximise our potential to be a world leader and develop a more competitive, efficient, and accessible clinical research system, the Department is committed to implementing recommendations from the Lord O'Shaughnessy independent review of commercial clinical trials in full. We expect these efforts to attract more commercial investment in clinical research and yield a broad and diverse portfolio of clinical trials in the UK, to provide innovative treatment options for patients.