Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to promote opportunities for patients to participate in clinical research; and if he will make a statement.

The development of new and better treatments would not be possible without patients and the public taking part in research, and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) is committed to their active involvement in National Health Service, public health and social care research. In 2015/16, more than 605,000 people participated in clinical research studies through the NIHR Clinical Research Network. INVOLVE, the NIHR’s national advisory group on patient and public involvement in research, help members of the public to advise on NIHR research, helps to identify and prioritise research topics, assess funding proposals, and carry out and disseminate findings. INVOLVE is also at the forefront of a growing international public involvement movement seeking to collectively promote and advance public involvement in health and social care research around the world.

The Government also supports the work of the James Lind Alliance, which brings patients, carers, clinicians and medical research charities together to identify and prioritise research topics. In addition, we fund the UK Clinical Trials Gateway and Join Dementia Research to enable patients and clinicians to find out about clinical trials that may be of interest to them.