Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding from the public purse the Government plans to allocate to dementia research in the 2018-19 financial year.

The Department funds research on health and social care through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The usual practice of NIHR is not to ring-fence funds for expenditure on particular topics, with research proposals from all areas competing for available funding. NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health including dementia. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality. The amount of NIHR funding in a disease area therefore depends on scientific activity. However, the Government’s 2020 Dementia Challenge makes a commitment to maintain public funding for dementia research at £60 million a year to 2020. NIHR funding for dementia research grew to £44.6 million in 2016/17, with total public funding for dementia research standing at £83.1 million, ahead of the 2020 commitment.