In a slew of recent parliamentary questions, further details are emerging on the government’s stance on funding the Delivery Plan for ME/CFS, and of ME/CFS research in general.
On 29th August 2025 Anna Gelderd MP tabled a question (UIN 73036)
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to allocate (a) new and (b) ring-fenced funding to support the implementation of the Final Delivery Plan for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, published in July 2025.
Ashley Dalton MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Public Health and Prevention, responded (emphasis added by ME Research UK)
We recognise the negative impact that myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) has on patients and their loved ones, and also the cost to health and care services and the wider economy through, for example, loss of work and an increased benefits bill. We, therefore, recently published the ME/CFS final delivery plan, which focuses on boosting research, improving attitudes and education, and bettering the lives of people with this debilitating disease.
There are currently no plans to allocate new or ring-fenced funding specifically to support the implementation of the ME/CFS final delivery plan. However, we continue to commission research on ME/CFS services across the United Kingdom, focussing on the most severely affected. The plan includes increased funding for research, awarded through the National Institute for Health and Care Research, into how existing medicines can be used for post-viral conditions, including ME/CFS. Additionally, there are always opportunities for researchers to bid for and secure research funding for ME/CFS through our open research funding calls.
Parliamentary questions and the Delivery Plan show that the government rejected entirely demands for ring-fenced research funding but the above statement shows that over all areas covered by the Delivery Plan – on boosting research, improving attitudes and education, and bettering the lives of people with the disease – funding will need to be found, if at all, within existing departmental budgets.
The economic burden of not investing in the Delivery Plan has not been considered. Tom Morrison MP again on 29th August 2025, asked the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made a recent estimate of the potential impact of Myalgic encephalomyelitis on the economy (UIN 72044). Ashley Dalton MP acknowledged that “We recognise the negative impact that myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) has on patients and their loved ones, and also the cost to health and care services and the wider economy through, for example, loss of work and an increased benefits bill” but failed to provide a figure for the quantifiable economic cost.
