BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH CENTRES

Early day motion 503, tabled 13 December 2006 by Tony Lloyd (Labour). Signed by 33 members.

That this House is dismayed by the decision of the Department of Health to award all of the funding for comprehensive biomedical research centres to existing centres in the golden triangle of London, Oxford and Cambridge; recognises that the Department of Health has a duty to ensure that different parts of the nation, whose tax base pays for these research programmes, benefit from investment in research and the skills and the employment it generates; is concerned that the existing research excellence of the Manchester University and NHS Hospitals Trust was ignored in favour of traditional centres; regrets that the Department of Health ignored the strong advice of the Cooksey report that other centres need to develop to challenge established centres to drive excellence; and calls upon the Department of Health to engage in early discussions with the Manchester bid partners to examine how the spirit of the Cooksey report can be taken forward practically in Manchester.

Signatures by party: Labour 27, Liberal Democrat 4, Conservative 1, DUP 1.