UK House of Lords/ House of Commons Questions

Invisible Woman said:
It's the word recovery that's confused 'em. So many definitions to choose from.
Click to expand...
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.
 
Last edited:
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 said:
https://www.parliament.uk/business/...s/written-question/Commons/2018-05-14/143805/

Alex Chalk

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to stimulate and facilitate high-quality research into chronic fatigue syndrome.
Click to expand...

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
 
It's M.E. Linda said:
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/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-questions-answers/?page=1&max=20&questiontype=AllQuestions&house=commons,lords&use-dates=True&answered-from=2018-05-14&answered-to=2018-05-22&member=4481&dept=17&keywords=cfs
Click to expand...
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.
 
Reply to Carol Monaghans questions:

Caroline Dinenage Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In the period in question, the major National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) funding for biomedical research was through its Biomedical Research Centres and Units. These support research funded by the NIHR itself and also research funded by other public, charity and industry research funders. The level of funding for biomedical research into chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) for each financial year can be found in the table below. The funding for this research came from a combination of funders.

Financial Year

£

2014-15

280,442

2015-16

295,626

2016-17

130,958

The NIHR Clinical Research Network (CRN) provides the infrastructure that allows high-quality clinical research funded by charities, research funders and life-sciences industry to be undertaken throughout the National Health Service. The level of funding for biomedical research into CFS/ME for each financial year can be found in the table below. The funding for this research came from a combination of the NIHR, the Medical Research Council (MRC) and medical research charities. Expenditure from the CRN coordinating centre itself is also outlined below:

Financial Year

CRN funding for research, £

Coordinating expenditure, £

2014-15

134,769

17,485

2015-16

125,176

17,796

2016-17

82,866

7,821

The MRC spend on research directly relating to CFS/ME can be found in the following table. Research into CFS/ME is a continuing priority for the MRC.

Financial Year

£

2014-15

652,044

2015-16

287,234

2016-17

286,197

The NIHR and the MRC welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including biomedical research into 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. On this basis, it is not possible to say how much funding is planned in the current financial year.

The NIHR recognises that CFS/ME is a debilitating condition and is speaking with the United Kingdom 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.
Click to expand...

(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/
 
Last edited:
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
 
Last edited:
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.


2011.jpg



2017.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom