Policy engagement
We work closely with a host of stakeholders – policy and decision makers, health professionals, regulators and researchers. Sometimes this includes direct engagement with politicians to inform them about relevant developments and convene or join discussions about our policy priorities.
We contribute to policy development in different ways. This includes supporting relevant government departments, arm’s-length bodies, professional bodies and other organisations and groups with our evidence and expertise, though mechanisms including membership of committees and working groups, contribution to workshops and inquiries, and targeted intelligence or analysis. On occasion, we may also convene stakeholder meetings to facilitate discussion.
From 2015-2020 we provided the secretariat to the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Personalised Medicine. The Group’s founding Chair was Jo Churchill, MP, later Minister for Prevention, Public Health and Primary Care, alongside Lord Norman Warner. The group provided a platform for politicians to explore the value of genomics and related technologies for the NHS. This mandate was fulfilled with the launch of the NHS Genomic Medicine Service and publication of the National Genomics Healthcare Strategy in 2020.
Selected parliamentary events run and evidence provided by our senior team in recent years are outlined below.
2019
Gene therapy in the NHS
APPG meeting with Matthew Durdy (Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult), Sir David Amess MP and Lord Norman Warner
Our Healthy Future
Launch of PHG Foundation policy report
Towards a national genomic healthcare strategy
APPG roundtable, speakers Prof Sir John Bell (University of Oxford) and Ellen Graham (NHS England)
2018
Genomics and genome editing in the NHS
Oral evidence to the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee inquiry
How will AI benefit NHS cancer patients?
PHG Foundation roundtable with speakers Prof Carlos Caldas (University of Cambridge), Dr Alan Karthikesalingam (DeepMind Health) and Helen Whately MP
Harnessing science and technology for personalised medicine
APPG reception with speakers Lord O’Shaughnessy (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Health), Prof Sir Munir Pirmohamed (University of Liverpool), Dr Adam Platt (AstraZeneca), Dr Mark Kroese (PHG Foundation) and Helen Whately, MP
2017
Implementing a National Genomic Medicine Service for the NHS
APPG on Health / APPG on Personalised Medicine meeting with Prof Sue Hill (NHS England), Prof Lyn Chitty (UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health), Dr Jean Abraham (Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust), Dr Hilary Burton (PHG Foundation), Helen Whately MP and Maggie Throup MP