Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to support the life sciences sector in restarting clinical trials paused due to covid-19 outbreak; and on what date he plans to announce those plans.

The Department funds and supports research through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The NIHR Clinical Research Network (CRN) has paused the site set up of new or ongoing studies at National Health Service and social care sites that are not nationally prioritised COVID-19 studies. This is to enable the NIHR CRN research workforce to focus on delivering nationally prioritised COVID-19 studies or enabling redeployment to frontline care where necessary. The NIHR is currently considering how to re-start paused studies that are funded or supported by the NIHR CRN in a way which will protect the continued delivery of nationally prioritised COVID-19 studies, which are an essential part of the Government response to the ongoing pandemic. It is engaging with research funders, including industry, and NHS Research and Development departments in formulating these plans. The NIHR will publish plans on re-starting paused studies in due course.