The Science and Technology Committee is today releasing the
Health Research Authority’s response to its Research Integrity:
Clinical Trials Transparency Report, which was
published in October 2018.
The Department of Health and Social Care has also released its
response to the Report today.
Rt Hon , Chair of the Science and
Technology Committee, said:
“We commend the HRA for their willingness to rise to the
challenges we have set them, and we now need to see the
Government back the HRA up with the resources it clearly
needs.
“While we welcome the Government’s response, it is disappointing
that four months after our Report was released, we still don’t
have any confirmation of the additional funding needed to support
the Health Research Authority (HRA) to implement our
recommendations.
“The Committee remains hopeful that a decision will be made on
funding for audits of clinical trials reporting before we return
to this issue after the summer.
“In the meantime, the HRA’s commitment to produce a strategy to
drive improvements in trial reporting and registration is a
crucial first step. The HRA has clearly listened to our
recommendations, and we look forward to seeing them take shape.
“The HRA response confirms that it has written to all NHS Trusts
with unreported trial results to ask them to them to tackle this
problem. I will also write to them in due course to highlight our
intention to hold an evidence session on this topic after the
summer, to match the message we’ve already sent to universities.
If things haven’t improved by then we’ll want to bring them
before the Committee to find out why and hold them to
account.
“It’s high time this problem is fixed once and for all, and we
will build on this drive from the HRA.”
