Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to support research on vaccinations against recurrent and chronic urinary tract infections.

The Department funds research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR funds, supports, and carries out high-quality research to improve health outcomes and care services. Over the last five financial years, the Department has provided over £22 million in programme research funding for urinary tract infection (UTI) research, including research on improved treatment for recurrent and chronic UTIs. In addition, NIHR infrastructure is supporting Phase 3 trials on vaccines against Escherichia coli infection in older adults who have a history of UTI, delivered by the NIHR Bristol Clinical Research Facility and the NIHR Wellcome Trust Manchester Clinical Research Facility.

The NIHR also funds the James Lind Alliance, which has run a Priority Setting Partnership (PSP) focused on chronic and recurrent UTIs. This PSP, funded by AMR Action UK and delivered in partnership with Bladder Health UK and The Urology Foundation, has identified the top 10 research priorities in this area. A rolling funding opportunity is available for research projects that align with priorities aligning with PSPs.