Thank you for contacting me about dementia research.
I entirely agree that research is crucial to understanding and tackling dementia, and was proud to stand on a manifesto that committed to making finding a cure for dementia one of the Government's biggest collective priorities through the dementia moonshot.
As part of the 2020 Challenge on Dementia, £344 million was spent on dementia research in the past five years and the Government is strongly committed to continuing to support research into dementia, having made a number of welcome funding commitments. At the 2021 Spending Review, £5 billion was committed to health-related research and development over the Spending Review period and I hope to see dementia research benefit from this funding. Additionally, I was delighted by the Government's announcement in November of a £375 million investment, over the next five years, to improve understanding and treatment for a range of neurodegenerative diseases. This includes Fronto-temporal dementia, Parkinson’s disease dementia, Lewy Body dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, among others.
The Government is currently working on ways to significantly boost further research on dementia and a new dementia strategy is expected to be published this year. The strategy will include ambitions for dementia research and increasing dementia research funding and I look forward to its publication.
I welcome the opportunity for Parliament to discuss this important issue and I am sure the debate on Thursday 10 February will be a very compelling discussion. I have made a note in my diary and I will attend if my diary allows.
If you think that there is anything I can do to help you, please do not hesitate to get in touch. Thank you once again for taking the time to contact me about this important issue.
8 February 2022