Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of research on the long-term effects of covid-19 on his Department's public health strategies.

In October 2024, the Department hosted a roundtable on long COVID research with the Chief Scientific Officer, Professor Lucy Chappell, discussing the relevance of the research to other post-viral syndromes and strategies to stimulate further research in the scientific community.

The Department regularly reviews evidence on the health and economic impact of diseases and conditions. Where appropriate, this evidence is used to produce impact assessments which inform the development of new policies to address the needs of the population.

The Department funds research on health and social care through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR and the Medical Research Council (MRC), which is part of UK Research and Innovation, remain committed to funding high-quality research to understand the causes, consequences, and treatment for long COVID.

Between 2019/20 and 2023/24, through the NIHR and the MRC, we have invested over £57 million on research into long COVID, with almost £40 million of this through two specific research calls on long COVID. The funded projects aim to improve our understanding of the diagnosis and underlying mechanisms of the disease and the effectiveness of both pharmacological and non-pharmacological therapies and interventions, as well as to evaluate the effectiveness of clinical care.