Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what advice he has received on the potential impact of medical innovation in the NHS on global research and development investment decisions; and if he will make a statement.

The Government’s Life Sciences Vision, published in July 2021, sets out our ambition to stimulate the United Kingdom’s life sciences sector. The Vision commits the Government to supporting the National Health Service to test, purchase and spread innovative technologies more effectively, to result in cutting-edge science and innovations being embedded widely across the NHS, as early as possible, and rapidly adopted across the rest of the world.

We are working with industry and system partners to make the NHS the country’s most powerful driver of innovation. This work is overseen by the Life Science Council, chaired by the Secretaries of State for the Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, and driven through the Life Sciences Vision Delivery Board, chaired by Ministers within the departments. We will continue to work closely with a wide range of public and private sector bodies and stakeholders across the sector to deliver the Life Sciences Vision.