It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

The Department funds research on health and social care through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The following table shows the total award expenditure on NIHR-funded research programmes relating to sickle cell disease and cystic fibrosis in each of the last five years.

In the last five years the NIHR has also supported the delivery of 54 studies relating to sickle cell disease and 130 studies relating to cystic fibrosis via its Clinical Research Network (CRN). However, information on expenditure for specific CRN-supported studies is not available in the format requested.

There are a range of care and treatments available for sickle cell disease. Information on the total funding of new treatments or clinical care for sickle cell disease in England is not held in the format requested.

The following table shows total expenditure on high-cost drugs, which includes the cost of new treatments, and clinical care for cystic fibrosis.

Source: NHS contract monitoring information system – Secondary User Services

Note:

Data collected in 2017/18 may not be comparable to data in other years due to the way in which the information was collected.

In 2020/21, half of patients benefited from home monitoring with £1,165,200 made available to provide remote spirometry. This was to allow clinical teams to monitor and support people with cystic fibrosis who were advised to shield and reduce the need for face-to-face assessments and hospital visits.

The 200 year anniversary is a nationally important moment to mark and celebrate. The DfT will work with the whole industry to make this a special event for workers and passengers alike.

We will look for opportunities to consider how we can promote research and development in rail during the bicentenary. The DfT currently works with Innovate UK and the Rail Safety and Standards Board to deliver research, development, and innovation programmes. One of the commitments of the William-Shapps Plan for Rail is a thirty-year strategy which will provide a clear, long-term plan for transforming the railways to strengthen collaboration, unlock efficiencies, and incentivise innovation.

The Department has a large research programme into the passenger experiences on public transport, including end to end journeys. This includes research and evaluation projects to build the evidence base on what works to improve public transport, and measure the impact of public transport investment for passengers, including:

• Research to segment the bus market with the aim to better understand how Government can drive improvements in passenger experience and target interventions to improve bus services and increase bus usage.
• Ongoing surveys and statistical publications, including the National Travel Survey, which measure changes in travel behaviours and passenger satisfaction.
• Evaluation of the Inclusive Transport Strategy (ITS) to improve understanding of disabled people’s experiences using the transport network, including individual modes and the journey as a whole, and the impact of the ITS upon this.
• Future evaluation of bus improvement pilots and large public transport investments including City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements (CRSTS) and bus transformational funding through Bus Service Improvement Plans (BSIPs), as well as on Enhanced Partnerships and the wider National Bus Strategy. CRSTS and BSIP funding allocations for both funds were announced on 4 April 2022.

The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The NIHR and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) have co-funded rapid research to support the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including on the nasal administration of vaccines. Approximately £580,000 was awarded to Imperial College London towards a study on the safety and lower airway immunogenicity of two candidate COVID-19 vaccines administered to the respiratory tract. Additionally, the NIHR is providing infrastructure support to two phase one studies in this area, including the study at Imperial College London. As the largest public funder of health and care research, the NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including intra-nasal COVID-19 vaccines.

The virus has been purified and isolated.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. I will correspond directly with the noble Lord.

It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. I will correspond directly with the noble Lord.

The UK stands ready to formalise our association to EU programmes at the earliest opportunity but the EU are not honouring commitments made when the TCA was agreed. My rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State and I have raised delays with our counterparts in Europe, including through the EU-UK Specialised Committee meeting in December 2021.

Delays from the EU have led to uncertainty for researchers, businesses and innovators in the UK, including ERC applicants. In order to provide reassurance, the Government has guaranteed funding for eligible successful applicants to Horizon Europe who are expected to sign grant agreements by December 2022. The guarantee means that eligible ERC applicants will receive the full value of their funding at a UK host institution and do not need to leave the UK.

If the UK is unable to associate to Horizon soon, and in good time to make full use of the opportunities it offers, we will be ready to introduce a comprehensive global science, research and innovation programme for the benefit of the UK research community.

The Government’s position remains to associate to Horizon, at the earliest opportunity. However persistent delays from the EU are causing uncertainty for the UK’s R&D sector. Supporting the UK’s research and development sector through this period of uncertainty is our top priority. If the UK is unable to associate to Horizon Europe soon and in time to make full use of the opportunities it offers, the Government will introduce a comprehensive alternative programme of international science, research and innovation collaboration, building on those outlined in the R&D Roadmap.

Funding for UK entities, successful in the latest Euratom Research & Training research call, is covered by the existing UKRI guarantee. This ensures UK entities can sign agreements and collaborative nuclear fission projects can go ahead. Relevant Euratom stakeholders have been contacted regarding the availability of the guarantee. £4m of funding has been agreed to provide this guarantee. It remains our policy to associate to Euratom R&T. Contracts for the next wave of Euratom R&T are unlikely to be signed before late 2023 and relevant teams across government will continue to work towards ensuring UK entities have the confidence to apply for the second wave of grants.

There have been no research projects into neuroleptic malignant syndrome funded by the Department since 2016. The Department funds research into rare diseases through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The NIHR is the nation’s largest funder of health and care research, spending over £1 billion on research every year, with research proposals in all areas competing for the funding available. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made based on the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality.

Soil is one of our greatest assets, essential for delivering a range of natural capital benefits including, food production, biodiversity, carbon storage and flood mitigation. Improving soil health is a key aspect of a range of natural flood management measures that can slow water flows and improve water storage to reduce flood risk.

From July 2017-21, the Government delivered a £15 million natural flood management programme across England. The programme funded 26 catchment scale projects and 34 community scale-projects and developed the natural flood management evidence base. The Environment Agency will publish a full peer reviewed evaluation of the natural flood management programme in 2022. Evidence from this programme is feeding into the Government’s evidence directory on working with natural processes to reduce flood risk. The directory includes a chapter summarising the existing evidence on run-off management including soil and land management.

We are continuously considering the developing evidence base in our policy, including the Natural Environment Council’s ongoing Natural Flood Management Research Programme. Within this programme, the LANDWISE project and Q-NFM projects will evaluate the effectiveness of natural flood management measures including soil infiltration.

Further testing of practical and innovative solutions to mitigate flood risk is also taking place through the £200m Flood and Coastal Resilience Innovation Programme 2021-27. This includes funding 25 local areas to take forward innovative actions that improve their resilience over six years, such as nature-based solutions where relevant.

A Soil Health Action Plan for England is being developed to deliver a strategic and coherent plan for preventing soil degradation and improving soil health. The Action Plan will encourage changes to land management practices that help improve and protect soil health and make it more resilient to the impacts of climate change, including flooding.

Information about the report is available as a Deposited Paper in the Libraries of the House (Ref: Dep2021-0836 Paper No. 7a)