Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of UK funding allocated to research on ending leprosy; and what future plans she has to support leprosy research.

The FCDO-funded Coalition for Operational Research on Neglected Tropical Diseases (COR-NTD) programme is a research platform which commissions multiple studies to improve the effectiveness of programmes to control and eliminate NTDs, including leprosy.

The results of this research are expected to define best practices of NTD control for uptake by NTD programmes and governments in affected countries and around the world, ultimately reducing the suffering caused by NTDs and securing a healthier future in which the world's poorest are free from the threat of these diseases.