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Health: Research

Volume 482: debated on Wednesday 12 November 2008

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he has taken to assure the quality of academic research commissioned by his Department that relates to health improvement. (234267)

The Department invests in research concerned with health improvement through National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) funding streams, including the public health research programme launched in May this year, and via the Policy Research Programme. The research commissioned or supported in this way and the outputs from it are subject to rigorous independent peer review.

The Government's health research strategy Best Research for Best Health aims to ensure that national health service research funding is used to support the highest quality research, and to provide the facilities and systems needed to enable that research to take place. A copy has been placed in the Library. Further details are available on the NIHR website at: www.nihr.ac.uk. The Department's research governance framework for health and social care defines the broad principles of good research governance and is designed to ensure that all health and social care research is conducted to high scientific and ethical standards. The framework has been placed in the Library and is published on the Department's website at:

www.dh.gov.uk/en/Researchanddevelopment/A-Z/Researchgovernance/index.htm.