Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has taken recent steps to commission research into (a) reducing ill health and (b) retaining (i) physical function and (ii) mental capacity by older people.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR’s Healthy Ageing Policy Research Unit, which started in January 2024, undertakes research related to the health and wellbeing of older adults. This includes ongoing research to examine effective interventions that prevent or postpone the development of physical or mental disability related to long-term conditions.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has taken recent steps to commission research into (a) disease progression and (b) the intersection of comorbidities in the ageing population.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), and research into Multiple Long-Term Conditions (MLTC) is a strategic priority for the NIHR. The NIHR funds significant research into disease progression and the intersection of comorbidities in older adults through its ongoing artificial intelligence for MLTC programme, that was established in 2021.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to help ensure sufficient capacity within palliative care and end of life services in the context of an ageing population.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning palliative and end of life services that meet the needs of their population according to local prioritisation and funding. As part of the Health and Care Act 2022, palliative care services were specifically added to the list of services an ICB must commission.
NHS England has published statutory guidance for ICBs to support their commissioning of high-quality, accessible palliative and end of life care for all. This includes the completion of an Equalities and Health Inequalities Impact Assessment and action plan.
The National Institute for Health and Care Research is investing £3 million in a new Palliative and End of Life Care Policy Research Unit. This will help build the evidence base on palliative and end of life care, as demand increases, to inform policymaking.
Asked by: Mark Logan (Conservative - Bolton North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what digital health collaboration is in place between the UK and (a) India, (b) Japan and (c) Israel as of 13 October 2023.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department has been working with India during its G20 presidency this year, to achieve resilient, equitable and sustainable Universal Health Coverage (UHC) for all through digital health, one of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
The Department has also been working with Japan during its G7 presidency this year, to ensure United Kingdom digital health priorities are appropriately reflected within this year’s Health Track and to explore how innovation, including digital, can help overcome some of our most pressing health challenges such as ageing populations and rising comorbidities.
In November 2021, the UK and Israel signed a Memorandum of Understanding in order to deepen and expand cooperation across mutual priorities, including Cyber, Health, Science and Technology. Israel and the UK committed to leveraging their combined research and innovation strengths to address mutual challenges, in areas such as, the COVID-19 pandemic, the future effectiveness and streamlining of health systems, and the life sciences.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support research into the development of new, scalable diagnostic tests for dementia; and what assessment they have of the current proportion of patients receiving an accurate dementia diagnosis that includes a specialist diagnosis of the sub-type of dementia.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Government responsibility for delivering dementia research is shared between the Department of Health and Social Care, with research delivered by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, with research delivered via UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
The NIHR and has invested nearly £11 million to develop new digital approaches for the early detection and diagnosis of dementia. The NIHR-funded SABRE study aims to translate the diagnostic capability of spatial tests into routine clinical practice for use in ageing populations to diagnose Alzheimer’s Disease.
Through the UKRI-funded UK Dementia Research Institute, scientists are undertaking research on the biological mechanisms of dementia, driving early-stage development of diagnostics and treatments, and developing innovative technologies for assisted living.
From April 2023, NHS England started collecting data on dementia sub types from GP systems under the following categories: Alzheimer’s, Vascular, Mixed and Other. This was included in the monthly publication of Primary Care Dementia Data from 20 July 2023.
Asked by: Baroness Morgan of Cotes (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what are the current funding levels for each What Works Centre within the What Works Network.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The What Works Network helps deliver more effective and efficient public sector services by creating and sharing high-quality evidence to inform decisions by practitioners and policymakers.
The 13 What Works Centres that comprise the network receive funding from a variety of sources, and departments and public bodies are major funders for many.
The Education Endowment Foundation received a £125 million endowment in 2011 from the DfE, to be spent over 15 years. It received a subsequent £137 million endowment from DfE in 2022. It receives additional funding from the DfE and other parties as outlined in its annual report and financial statements. In the financial year ending March 2022, it reported £30.4 million in grants from DfE.
The Youth Endowment Fund received a £200 million endowment in the Home Office in 2019, to be spent over 10 years. It receives additional funding from the Home Office (via a Centre of Excellence grant) and other parties as outlined in its annual report and financial statements.
The Youth Futures Foundation received £90 million via the Dormant Assets Scheme in 2019, and a further £20 million via the scheme in 2022. It receives a small amount of other grant income as outlined in its annual report and financial statements – in 2021 this other grant income was approximately £21,000.
The Centre for Homelessness Impact is primarily funded by an anonymous private donor. In the financial year ending June 2022, this total was £1.65 million. It receives additional funding from other parties – including DLUHC, MoJ, the Cabinet Office and the National Institute for Health Research – as outlined in its annual report and financial statements. In the financial year ending June 2022, this additional funding amounted to approximately £462,000.
The Centre for Ageing Better received a £49.6 million endowment from the National Lottery Community Fund in 2014, to be spent over 15 years. It receives additional funding from other parties – including UKRI in the fiscal year ending March 2022 – as outlined in its Report of the Trustees and financial statements.
The Wales Centre for Public Policy was awarded £9 million in 2022, to be spent over five years. Its core funders are the Economic and Social Research Council, the Welsh Government and Cardiff University.
The What Works Centre for Local Economic Growth is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and three government departments: BEIS, DLUHC, and DfT. It has received approximately £1.4 million per year under its current grant.
Two centres – the Early Intervention Foundation and What Works for Children’s Social Care – have recently merged into one centre, which is operating as What Works for Early Intervention and Children’s Social Care. DfE has been the primary funder of both organisations historically, and plans to be the primary funder of this merged organisation in the future. The funding figures provided relate to the centres in their previous forms.
What Works Children’s Social Care was primarily funded by the DfE. In the financial year ending March 2022, the grants it received from DfE totalled approximately £17.4 million.
The Early Intervention Foundation received funding from multiple government departments and other funders, as outlined in its annual report and financial statements. In the financial year ending March 2022, it received approximately £2.4 million in restricted and unrestricted funding from its core cross-government grant, and approximately £184,000 from the Home Office.
What Works Centre for Wellbeing receives funding from a wide range of sources. Its largest funder is the National Lottery Community Fund – in the financial year ending March 2022, it received approximately £357,000 from them. It does not receive significant public funding – in the financial year ending March 2022, it received approximately £81,000 from DCMS.
The Centre for Transforming Access and Student Outcomes in Higher Education is primarily funded by the Office for Students, who’ve supported the centre with £4.5 million over 4 years since 2019.
Finally, there are three What Works Centres which sit within professional, arms-length or non-departmental public bodies. These are:
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)
The What Works Centre for Crime Reduction (part of the College of Policing)
The Money and Pensions Service
Smaller What Works Centre functions sit within each of these larger organisations. The Cabinet Office does not have information regarding the precise funding levels available for the What Works sub-teams within these larger organisations, but the aggregate funding levels for these organisations should be accessible in the public domain.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential of New Approach Methodologies to progress research into (a) Alzheimer’s disease and (b) Parkinson’s disease.
Answered by George Freeman
The Government actively supports and funds the development and dissemination of non-animal technologies. This is achieved primarily through funding from UKRI for the National Centre for the 3Rs (NC3Rs), which works nationally and internationally to drive the uptake of approaches that replace, reduce and refine the use of animals in research.
Since the NC3Rs was launched in 2004 it has committed £49.2M for research and innovation in non-animal technologies. This includes a recent £4.7M commitment to accelerate the use of non-animal technologies, with £3.7M invested through a joint UKRI-BBSRC and NC3Rs call and an additional £1M committed by UKRI for the development of non-animal technologies to support ageing research.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will set up a National Institute for AI and Ageing as recommended in a recent report by the Institution of Engineering and Technology.
Answered by Will Quince
The NHS Artificial Intelligence Laboratory is addressing aging in a multi-disciplinary, cross-sector approach. The Laboratory is contributing to a range of projects, including identifying whether artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to detect the earlier onset of Parkinson's disease to enable a proactive approach to care; funding a range of ethics focused research projects to identify how all demographic groups can benefit from AI; and deploying imaging technologies which can detect the prevalence of conditions such as osteoporosis.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of involving abled and disabled non drivers involved in the development of driverless cars and their regulation in the UK.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The Department for Transport has ongoing research, analysis and public engagement programmes which seek to understand the opportunities associated with new transport technologies. Examples informing our view on the potential benefits of self-driving vehicles (SDVs) include:
In addition, Government is funding world-leading projects to explore how SDVs can improve mobility for an ageing population (in Bristol) and visually impaired people (in Birmingham), including the world’s first 4D tactile display in an automated vehicle. Separately in 2019, Coventry’s Aurrigo partnered with Blind Veterans UK on the world’s first trial of self-driving pods with blind veterans (in Brighton).
The Law Commission of England and Wales and the Scottish Law Commission (‘the Commissions’) recently published their recommendations for a legal framework for SDVs, and consulted widely on how to ensure SDVs are made accessible to disabled people as the recommendations were developed. The Commissions’ final recommendations include an advisory panel to guide the issuing of permits for passenger services, which would include representatives for disabled (and older) people. We are considering the Commissions’ final recommendations and will make a formal response in due course.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an assessment of the possibility of having (a) differently-abled and (b) disabled non-drivers involved in the development of driverless cars and their regulation in the UK.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The Department for Transport has ongoing research, analysis and public engagement programmes which seek to understand the opportunities associated with new transport technologies. Examples informing our view on the potential benefits of self-driving vehicles (SDVs) include:
In addition, Government is funding world-leading projects to explore how SDVs can improve mobility for an ageing population (in Bristol) and visually impaired people (in Birmingham), including the world’s first 4D tactile display in an automated vehicle. Separately in 2019, Coventry’s Aurrigo partnered with Blind Veterans UK on the world’s first trial of self-driving pods with blind veterans (in Brighton).
The Law Commission of England and Wales and the Scottish Law Commission (‘the Commissions’) recently published their recommendations for a legal framework for SDVs, and consulted widely on how to ensure SDVs are made accessible to disabled people as the recommendations were developed. The Commissions’ final recommendations include an advisory panel to guide the issuing of permits for passenger services, which would include representatives for disabled (and older) people. We are considering the Commissions’ final recommendations and will make a formal response in due course.