Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he has taken to support University College London in its work to enable people who have been paralysed to regain the ability to walk.

The Department’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) funds 11 biomedical research centres that conduct translational research to transform scientific breakthroughs into benefits for patients. These centres are formed through partnerships between England’s leading National Health Service organisations and universities.

The NIHR is investing £110 million over five years (2012-17) in the NIHR biomedical research centre at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and University College London. The centre is supporting research on the use of cells from the lining of the nose to repair damaged nerves in the spinal cord.