Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what incentives they are offering to medical partnerships to assist type two diabetes sufferers through research into both stem-cell and non-stem-cell treatments for diabetes type one sufferers.

The Department is delivering improvements as part of the Vision for the Future of UK Clinical Research Delivery to make the United Kingdom a world leader in clinical research, attracting investment from commercial companies to deliver cutting edge research in a range of disease areas, including diabetes. For example, we introduced the National Contract Value Review to standardise costing and contracting for commercial research in the National Health Service.

This has reduced set up times for clinical research by a third which makes running research in the UK more efficient for commercial companies.

The National Institute for Health and Care Research’s (NIHR) Clinical Research Network (CRN) supports conduct of clinical research in the NHS, providing tailored support for both non-commercial organisations and the life sciences industry. The CRN has a Diabetes Speciality Group to support research across key priorities in diabetes.

The NIHR works in partnership with Diabetes UK to deliver the joint UK Strategy for Clinical and Applied Diabetes Research. The NIHR also funds a Global Health Research Unit on Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease in South Asia, creating partnerships between research organisations in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the UK.