UK House of Lords/ House of Commons Questions

So now they hold us in such contempt that they can't even be bothered bullshitting any more?

How rude. Go on, at least take us seriously enough to bother making something up.

 

It's the word recovery that's confused 'em. So many definitions to choose from.

 

I think it's the full and truthful answer that's spooked them ... so they plumped for an empty and not-very-truthful answer instead. The information has to be in data that must surely be available - criminal if such data not recorded. And querying the information out of that data is hardly an intractable problem. So they are afraid to make the answer available, which I'm sure the Countess of Mar was very aware of when asking the question.

 

https://www.parliament.uk/business/...s/written-question/Commons/2018-05-17/145357/

Written question 145357: Carol Monaghan 17-05-2018

Department of Health and Social Care

145357

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding from the public purse he plans to allocate to biomedical research into Myalgic Encephalomyelitis in the current financial year.

https://www.parliament.uk/business/...s/written-question/Commons/2018-05-17/145356/

Written question 145356: Carol Monaghan 17-05-2018

Department of Health and Social Care

145356

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding from the public purse was allocated to biomedical research into Myalgic Encephalomyelitis 2016-2017.

https://www.parliament.uk/business/...s/written-question/Commons/2018-05-17/145355/

Written question 145355: Carol Monaghan 17-05-2018

Department of Health and Social Care

145355

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding from the public purse was allocated to biomedical research into Myalgic Encephalomyelitis 2015-2016.

https://www.parliament.uk/business/...s/written-question/Commons/2018-05-17/145354/

Written question 145354: Carol Monaghan 17-05-2018

Department of Health and Social Care

145354

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding from the public purse was allocated to biomedical research into Myalgic Encephalomyelitis 2014-2015.

https://www.parliament.uk/business/...s/written-question/Commons/2018-05-17/145353/

Written question 145353: Carol Monaghan 17-05-2018

Department of Health and Social Care

145353

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to respond to the letter from the hon. Member for Glasgow North West dated 25 April 2018 on myalgic encephalomyelitis.

 

https://www.parliament.uk/business/...s/written-question/Commons/2018-05-21/146296/

Carol Monaghan

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding from the public purse was allocated to biomedical research into myalgic encephalomyelitis in 2013-2014 [146296]

https://www.parliament.uk/business/...s/written-question/Commons/2018-05-21/146297/

Carol Monaghan

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding from the public purse was allocated to biomedical research into myalgic encephalomyelitis in 2012-2013 [146297].

https://www.parliament.uk/business/...s/written-question/Commons/2018-05-21/146298/

Carol Monaghan

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding from the public purse was allocated to biomedical research into myalgic encephalomyelitis in 2011-2012 [146298].

https://www.parliament.uk/business/...s/written-question/Commons/2018-05-21/146299/

Carol Monaghan

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding from the public purse was allocated to biomedical research into myalgic encephalomyelitis in 2010-2011 [146299].

 

@MeSci I really like all of Carol Monaghan’s questions!

 

Reply received and Alex notified us (3 who met him together) by email this afternoon.

Answered by: Caroline Dinenage Answered on: 22 May 2018
The Department National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) recognises that chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), is a debilitating condition. The NIHR is speaking with the United Kingdom’s CFS/ME Research Collaborative and patient representatives about how best we can support a joined up approach to high quality research into this complex disorder. The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including CFS/ME; it is not usual practice to ring-fence funds for particular topics or conditions. 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


Full
https://www.parliament.uk/business/...o=2018-05-22&member=4481&dept=17&keywords=cfs

 

I wonder how they decide on "the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality".

They haven't done too well over the past few decades! Good reply though.

 

@MeSci , also noted the “not usual practice to ring fence funds.....” compared to our discussions in

https://www.s4me.info/threads/uk-funding-doubled-for-brain-cancer-research.4144/

 

Reply to Carol Monaghans questions:

(sorry the tables went a bit squiffy.)

eta: am not sure if all of this is 'biomedical' as we understand it(?)

eta2: available on Hansard https://www.parliament.uk/business/...s/written-question/Commons/2018-05-17/145357/

 

@Trish Is it easier to read from the MEA post?

http://www.meassociation.org.uk/2018/05/monaghan-pmq-research-funding-23-may-2018/

 

https://www.parliament.uk/business/...s/written-question/Commons/2018-05-17/145357/

 

Yeah, I'd agree. I call bullshit on those figures, I bet most of them are behavioural research.

 

My thoughts are that if these figures “ allows high-quality clinical research funded by charities, research funders and life-sciences industry to be undertaken throughout the National Health Service.”

“ .....The funding for this research came from a combination of the NIHR, the Medical Research Council (MRC) and medical research charities.”

Then, if our UK charities could provide the figures of how much they have invested in biomedical research during the specified years, and how much came from “research funders” then surely that would show us roughly how much was provided by Govt coffers.

Does that make sense, or am I just in a brain fog moment?

Edit - sorry @Andy are my posts cluttering up this thread? Please feel free to move them into a new discussion thread.
Edit 2 - spelling

 

21.7.2016 I wrote to my MP who sought a reply (from ??? Dept) and received the response

“As you are aware, research into CFS/ME is a priority area for the Medical Research Council (MRC). In 2011, £1.6 million was awarded to support five research grants following a call for proposals and a further £1.2 million was awarded in 2013. I know that the MRC are also encouraging applications and proposals for certain other areas of work.”

So we could work out as £7.8M total funding in ? 30 years?????

Perhaps @Graham (Hi again, ) can assist as our “stats” man?

Going leave you with these thoughts and have a brain rest.....

 

I'm not really a stats man, but from my calculations, if you add up all the grants given from the three main funders, the MRC, NIHR (virtually none, except for just recently funding Crawley), and Wellcome (virtually nothing), I'd be surprised if it comes much above £12 million. Of that, I'd be surprised if the biomedical component of that research was much above £2 million.

All of that drops away into insignificance when you add in the $5 or $6 million per year set aside by NIH in America, most of which did end up funding some form of CFS, even if a proportion of that was just on fatigue.

According to my estimates, I'd be surprised if the whole amount spent on biomedical research into ME over the last 40 years was much more than a week's current research spending on HIV/AIDS. Tom thinks that I should say a fortnight's spending to be on the safe side, because all of these are estimates. And that isn't counting the vast amount spent by private pharma.

 

I forgot to say that I do have databases that would allow us to work this out, but unlike NIH, the UK accounts are not presented in any way that allows you to easily see how much is spent on different conditions. That would take hours of work, and I'm not sure that it is worth doing. I'm pretty confident that my estimates are of the right order (which means £12 million could be £10 to £15 million, but unlikely to be £20 million). With figures like that, the situation is so appalling, why would we need an exact breakdown? Even the current increase in spending by the NIH is trivial.

Perhaps some of you remember the bubbles video for 2011. I did do an update for 2017. Here are the final scenes: you will be truly stunned by the difference.

 

Perhaps it would be helpful to see how many people are off work sick with the different conditions?

On second thoughts - it could be used against us.

 

What's the betting someone says behavioural research is biomedical research and starts blabbering on about cartesian dualism?