Written question asked by Ian Stewart (Labour) on Monday, 2 March 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 4 March 2009. It was answered by Baroness Primarolo (Labour) on Thursday, 5 March 2009 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Departmental Scientists

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what his Department's budget for scientific advice and research is in 2008-09; for what purposes the equivalent budget for 2007-08 was used; and how many people employed in his Department have a science or engineering degree.

Answer: The Department's research and development budget for the national health service for 2008-09 is £792 million and for its policy research programme is £33 million. The Department has no separately identifiable budget attributable to scientific advice.The NHS research and development budget provides the means of delivery of the Government's health research strategy and in 2007-08 was in part used to support the work of the National Institute for Health Research and in part allocated to NHS trusts. The policy research programme provides the evidence base for policy development and for the evaluation of policy implementation in health and social care.The Department does not collate data on the type of academic qualifications held by its staff.

Secondary information