The Department is committed to ensuring that all patients have access to cutting-edge clinical trials and innovative, lifesaving treatments.

The Department is working to fast-track clinical trials to drive global investment into life sciences, improve health outcomes, and accelerate the development of the medicines and therapies of the future.

The Department-funded National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) funds research and research infrastructure, which supports patients and the public to participate in high-quality research.

The NIHR provides an online service called 'Be Part of Research', which promotes participation in health and social care research by allowing users to search for relevant studies and register their interest. This makes it easier for people to find and take part in health and care research that is relevant to them. This is accessible through the NHS App and is currently highlighted on the home page for three months from 7 July 2025

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) will shortly be publishing its business plan, which will set out its priorities for 2025/26, following approval by the NICE Board. NICE’s priorities will include delivery of commitments outlined in the 10-Year Health Plan. These include:

- the adoption of a dynamic approach to appraisals that identifies where existing innovation should be retired and where technologies should be sequenced within the clinical pathway, to improve value and health outcomes;

- expanding NICE’s technology appraisal process to cover devices, diagnostics, and digital products, supported by the introduction of a rules-based pathway for HealthTech, to reduce variation in access to high-impact medical technologies; and

- alignment of NICE and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency processes, supported by information sharing and joint scientific advice, to speed up decision making and reduce the administrative burden for the system and industry, allowing new and innovative technologies to get to patients faster.

The Department has made no recent assessment of the extent to which age is a factor in oncology treatment decisions. Each National Health Service patient will be offered the treatment their clinicians consider to be the most effective.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), the National Health Service, and partners have well tested response capabilities to detect, contain, and treat novel infectious diseases, including Mpox.

The United Kingdom has sufficient testing capabilities in place to test for the different types of Mpox, as the UKHSA and some NHS laboratories can do the primary test for Mpox, and the UKHSA has requested that all NHS confirmed Mpox samples are sent to the Rare and Imported Pathogens Laboratory at the UKHSA, who can provide specialist polymerase chain reaction and genomic sequencing to determine the clade type.

The UKHSA is working closely with NHS England and has developed algorithms, which have been shared across the NHS, to support referrals of suspect cases for assessment. As part of the UKHSA’s well established preparedness plans, we have a supply of vaccines to vaccinate contacts of cases, and to vaccinate those in transmission networks connected to cases, as appropriate.

The Government is committed to helping the international response. The UK is the second largest donor to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, providing £1.65 billion over the 2020 to 2025 period. We are also working closely with them on ensuring sustainable and effective access to Mpox vaccines for low and middle income countries.

Critical to the management of any infections in the UK will be the rapid identification of any possible cases, with appropriate isolation and swift follow-up to trace and support identified contacts. We are placing a strong emphasis on ensuring there are high levels of awareness among clinicians about the risk and the actions they need to take when presented with possible cases. An update on case definitions and a briefing note has been issued.