Select Committee on Science and Technology Minutes of Evidence

Supplementary memorandum submitted by the Department of Health

EXPENDITURE ON CANCER RESEARCH

  At your Committee's hearing on 12 December, I undertook to let you have a note about expenditure on cancer research in the UK, comparing the Government's with that of the charities.

  Getting valid and accurate figures in this area is not without difficulty. For example, as you will appreciate, it is often impossible to distinguish between basic or biological research that is relevant to cancer from that relevant to other disease processes. And it can be difficult, for charities as well as the NHS, to differentiate between costs attributable to research and those attributable to services.

  I have, though, attempted to make a realistic assessment of the present position. I have drawn on various sources for the charities. I have: taken information from web sites and newsletters; used the Association of Medical Research Charities handbook; and made other enquiries by telephone and email to the relevant charities.

  In all cases I have used the latest or highest figure where there is more than one, and I have rounded up wherever appropriate. I have tried to capture as much data as possible, but it may be that some of the smaller cancer charities have escaped. Assuming they have, I think it unlikely that their combined expenditure would be anything near £1m, but I have added that as a nominal amount. I am fairly confident that a figure in the region of £180 million is a good approximation of the charities' annual expenditure on cancer research.

  For the Government's expenditure in 2000-01, I have started with the Department of Health figure, which is £83.8 million. As I explained to the Committee, this figure includes not only directly commissioned projects but also NHS support funding for research conducted by the charities and the research councils. To this I have added amounts from my opposite numbers in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

  I have then included estimates of expenditure provided by the Medical Research Council, by the Higher Education Funding Council for England, and by the Office of Science & Technology in respect of the other research councils. On this basis, the Government total is £190 million, which is significantly more than the figure (of £112 million for 1998-99) that the Department provided and the Committee quoted in its Report "Cancer Research—A Fresh Look" of 25 July 2000.

  I think we should all treat these figures with caution, for the reasons I have given. Even so, I would suggest that it is perfectly reasonable to say that the Government's expenditure on cancer research is equal to that of the charities.

Sir John Pattison

Director of Research, Analysis and Information

December 2001

34 CANCER NETWORKS

Region		Cancer Network	Clinical Lead for Research	Lead Clinician	Network Co-ordinator
North West	3	Lancashire & South Cumbria	To be identified	Dr Graham Read
	1	Merseyside & Cheshire	Dr Peter Clarke	Dr Ged Corcoran
	3	Greater Manchester	To be identified	Dr Petula Chatterlee
Northern & Yorkshire	3	Cancer Care Alliance of Teeside, S Durham and North Yorkshire	To be identified	Dr P Dunlop
	2	Humber & Yorkshire Coast	Prof Lindsay Turnbull	Prof M J Lind
	1	Northern	Dr Philip Atherton/ Prof Reg Hall	Prof Reg Hall
	2	Yorkshire	Dr Matt Seymour	Prof Mark Baker
Trent	1	North Trent	Prof Rob Coleman	Prof B W Hancock	Mr Roger Burkinshaw
	2	Mid Trent	Prof James Carmichael	Prof J D Hardcastle
	4	Derby/Burton		Dr Vaughan Keeley
	3	Leicestershire	To be identified	Dr Albert Benghiat
Eastern	3	Mid Anglia	To be identified	Dr David Blainey
	1	West Anglia	Dr Pippa Corrie	Dr M V Williams	Dr Roy Harris
	2	South Essex	Dr Anne Robinson	Dr I Linehan
	3	Norfolk & Waveney	Dr Martin	Dr Simon G Crocker
	4	Mount Vernon		Dr Jane Halpin
London	3	South East London	Dr Peter Harper	Dr Elizabeth Sawicka
	1	West London	Prof Charles Coombes/Dr Kathy Binysh	Prof Charles Coombes	Ms Pim Parker
	2	North London	Dr Jonathan Ledermann	Prof Tony Goldstone
	3	NE London	To be identified	Prof Adrian Newland
	1	South West London	Prof Alan Horwich	Dr Gill Ross	Ms Rachel Gresty-Bayes
South East	2	Sussex	Dr David Bloomfield	Dr Geoffrey Newman
	1	Central South Coast	Prof Peter Johnson	Mr James Smallwood	Ms Jocelyn Walters
	2	Four Counties	Dr Claire Blesing	Dr Jane Barrett	Ms Susan Palmer
	4	Kent		Prof Roger James
	3	Surrey	To be identified	Prof Hillary Thomas
South West	1	Avon, Somerset, Wiltshire	Dr Steven Falk	Dr Jonathan Sheffield	Mr Paul Dillon
	3	3 Counties	To be identified	Dr Roger Owen
	3	Dorset	To be identified	Mr Robert Talbot
	2	Peninsula	Dr Nigel Bailey	Dr Martin Cooper	Mr Glyn Rees
West Midlands	3	Arden		Dr Tom Goodfellow
	3	North West Midlands		Dr Nick Phin
	1	Black Country	Dr David Ferry	Dr D Murphy	Ms Linda Price
	2	Pan Birmingham	Dr Chris Poole	Dr Don Milligan

  1 = first wave 1 April 2001, 2 = second wave 1 October 2001, 3 = core post funding, 4 = remain unready.

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Prepared 21 March 2002