Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether he plans to provide additional financial resources for cerebral palsy treatment research.

The Department's National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including cerebral palsy. 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. The NIHR has supported research into cerebral palsy, for example research on sleep positioning for children with cerebral palsy, and research to support eating and drinking for individuals with cerebral palsy.

In September 2016 the Government announced the largest ever investment into health research infrastructure - £816 million over five years from April 2017 for 20 NIHR Biomedical Research Centres in England. We would expect some of this investment to support cerebral palsy research.