Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to introduce (a) ring-fenced and (b) targeted funding for research into age-related macular degeneration; and what assessment he has made of the potential impact of such funding on long-term sight-loss prevention.

The Department funds research on health and social care through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). Research funds are not usually ringfenced into specific conditions and there is not a target for research funding into age-related macular degeneration. However, the NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including age-related macular degeneration. Our approach to funding research is through open and fair competition and peer review to ensure that the highest-quality proposals, most likely to deliver real impact for patients, are funded without imposing financial targets or limits. Further information is available at the following link:

https://www.nihr.ac.uk/get-involved/suggest-a-research-topic

The nature of research means it is difficult to provide a precise assessment on impact against specific conditions, although there have been times when it has responded to Government commitments to spend pre-specified amounts of money on research in particular areas. In the last five financial years the NIHR has awarded £26.2 million on eye research which has included £6.2 million on Age Related Macular Degeneration