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Mental Health: Research

Asked by Tom HayesLabourDepartment of Health and Social CareTabled Answered 15 June 2026UIN 7630

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help ensure that mental health research receives equitable funding compared with physical health research.

Answered by Preet Kaur Gill

The Department commissions and funds research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR is the largest funder of mental health research in the United Kingdom and is funding a range of research in mental health to inform national mental health policy. Between the financial years 2020/21 and 2024/25, the NIHR committed more than £393.2 million to research projects and programmes on mental health, and through NIHR infrastructure investments enabled 952 studies on mental health and 751,663 people to take part in research. In January this year, the NIHR invested almost £55 million in five additional Mental Health Research Groups, expanding mental health research capacity in areas of England that have a high burden of mental ill-health and historically limited research capacity.

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