Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of funding for research into mesothelioma.

The Department’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) has invited researchers to apply for mesothelioma research funding, in particular to address the research questions identified through the Mesothelioma Priority Setting Partnership and published in December 2014. Eight NIHR programmes are participating in this themed call.

Two insurers – Aviva and Zurich – who participated in the earlier donation by insurers of £3 million to the British Lung Foundation (BLF), have agreed to each donate £250,000 per annum to the BLF for mesothelioma research over the next two years – a combined total of £1 million.