Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the NHS Long Term Plan, what plans the Government has to allocate funding for research into chronic pancreatitis.

The NHS Long Term Plan is a 10-year strategy for the National Health Service. It sets out how the NHS will spend the £33.9 billion cash terms annual increase going into the NHS budget by 2023/24. Research on health and social care continues to be funded by the Government through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The future of budgets outside of the NHS England resource settlement will be confirmed later this year at Spending Review 2019.

The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including chronic pancreatitis. As with other major research funders, the NIHR does not ring-fence funds for particular topics or conditions. Applications for funding 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.

The NIHR’s funding and support for research into chronic pancreatitis which is currently ongoing or recently concluded (in financial year 2018/19) includes one directly funded study, with a total award of £262,500, investigating the use of antioxidants and magnesium for the treatment of pain in hereditary and idiopathic chronic pancreatitis. In addition, there has been NIHR support for two studies through its early translational research infrastructure and five through the NIHR’s Clinical Research Network, which provides support for delivering research funded by the NIHR itself and other public, charity and industry research funders.