Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry's report entitled Clinical research in the UK: an opportunity for growth, published in Autumn 2021, what assessment he has made of the implications for his Department's policies of trends in the level of Phase III clinical trials in the UK; and for what reasons the number of Phase III clinical trials in the UK was less than those initiated in (a) Germany, (b) Spain, (c) France and (d) Italy in 2020.

All countries saw a decline in the number of clinical studies initiated in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Unlike other countries, in the UK we took proactive steps to focus on delivering COVID-19 research which enabled us to deliver new vaccines and treatments, but this had an impact on other research. The recovery of non-COVID research varied across different countries which were impacted at different times as new strains spread across the world and as a result of differences in how health systems are set up for the delivery of clinical studies.

Since Spring 2020, we have been working to restore a diverse and balanced portfolio of non-COVID studies which were impacted due to the pandemic. DHSC and NHS England have asked funders and research sponsors to review their study portfolios to assess the viability of delivering these within the capacity available. This aims to build back a thriving, sustainable and diverse portfolio of research studies within the health and care system which remains open to new studies. More recent data shows the situation is improving with increasing numbers of studies opening in the NHS.