Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many requests for research funding into Lyme Disease have been submitted to National Institute for Health Research health protection research units; how many of those applications have been approved; and if he will make a statement.

The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and is the largest public funder of health research in the United Kingdom. The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including Lyme disease. 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. In all disease areas, the amount of NIHR funding depends on the volume and quality of scientific activity.

The NIHR currently has no current applications for research on Lyme disease. The NIHR Health Protection Research Unit on Emerging and Zoonotic Infections is undertaking work on Lyme disease including looking at incidence of the disease in England and Wales.