Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the next Spending Review will include plans to review the level of investment in health research received by northern institutions.

This question was answered on 27th February 2019

The Spending Review will consider all public investments in the round.

Research funding, including Medical Research Council funding, is allocated following nation-wide competitive and academic peer review processes, where scientific excellence is the core assessment criteria.

Since 2016, Government has committed an additional £7bn for R&D by 2021-22 – the largest increase for 40 years, which supports the government target of increasing economy-wide R&D investment to 2.4% of GDP by 2027. To support innovation-led growth across the whole of the UK, Autumn Budget 2018 backed local initiatives to nurture R&D strengths by doubling the Strength in Places Fund to £235m.