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 help increase the number clinical trials of new medicines taking place in the UK.

The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Clinical Research Network (CRN) supports study sites to deliver research across England. In 2021/22 there were 6,383 studies on the NIHR CRN portfolio which has seen year-on-year growth in study numbers, recruiting in excess of 1 million participants. In March 2021, the Government published its 10-year vision Saving and Improving Lives: The Future of UK Clinical Research Delivery and set out our ambition to create a patient-centred, pro-innovation and digitally enabled clinical research environment. This will enable us to realise the potential of the United Kingdom’s clinical research environment and deliver growth.