Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of allocating additional funding from the public purse to research into diagnostic tests for potential asthma sufferers.

The Department funds research mainly through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The usual practice of the NIHR and other research funders is not to ring-fence funds for expenditure on particular topics and welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including asthma. These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality.

As usual practice is not to ring-fence funds for particular topics an assessment will not be made into diagnostic tests for potential asthma sufferers unless a funding application has been received.

The NIHR Clinical Research Network is available to support the set-up and timely delivery of commercial and non-commercial studies and trials in England which would include studies on diagnostic tests and treatments for asthma. In 2016-17, the NIHR Clinical Research Network supported 176 studies and clinical trials related to asthma in the National Health Service with a total expenditure of £12,046,815. Of those studies, over 100 were commercial contract or collaborative studies undertaken with industry.