The government has published its Life Sciences Sector Plan, setting out a ten-year strategy to accelerate health innovation, improve patient outcomes, and support a stronger, prevention-focused NHS. Developed alongside the 10 Year Health Plan and Industrial Strategy, the Plan positions life sciences as central to the UK’s approach to modernising healthcare and delivering sustainable economic growth.
The Plan sets out a coordinated, long-term vision to ensure that UK scientific excellence translates into real-world impact, with more patients benefitting from earlier diagnosis, faster access to treatment, and new technologies that support more personalised and preventative care.
Life sciences is already a major contributor to the UK economy, employing over 300,000 people and contributing around £100 billion annually. The Sector Plan aims to build on this strength by addressing longstanding barriers to innovation adoption, improving data infrastructure, and making the UK a more attractive environment for clinical trials, investment, and manufacturing. Our recent report, Defining the Size of the Health Innovation Prize, delivered by Frontier Economics, shows that scaling health innovation could unlock a further £278 billion in economic value each year by improving population health, workforce productivity, and investment potential.
The Life Sciences Sector Plan is built around three strategic pillars:
To achieve these pillars, six key actions backed by over £2 billion in government funding during this Spending Review period have been announced:
Several initiatives are already underway. This includes investment in the new Health Data Research Service, £650 million committed to Genomics England, and up to £354 million in Our Future Health. New measures to streamline regulation, strengthen NHS-industry partnerships and unlock access to clinical data are also in development.
The Life Sciences Sector Plan directly supports the delivery of the 10 Year Health Plan by enabling the faster development and adoption of innovations that reduce pressure on frontline services, shift care closer to home, and improve prevention and early intervention.
It also recognises the critical role of NHS infrastructure in supporting innovation. Included are specific commitments to work through and with existing regional assets, such as the 15 health innovation networks and NIHR research infrastructure, to ensure that promising technologies can be tested, adopted and scaled efficiently.
The rollout of NHS ‘innovator passports’ will provide a structured pathway to speed up national adoption of safe, effective innovations, helping to cut waiting times, improve health outcomes and reduce regional inequalities in access to care.
Taken together, the actions in the Life Sciences Sector Plan are designed to deliver the benefits of innovation to patients at pace and scale, support the NHS to find, test and implement proven innovations, and drive economic growth making it easier for UK-based firms to grow, manufacture and export world-leading technologies.
The UK is now in a race to the top to become a global powerhouse for the life sciences sector. To achieve this, we will need to go further to find, test and implement health innovations at pace and at scale. It is right that place-based innovation capacity and capabilities have been identified in the Life Science Sector Plan as a key enabler for the sector.
The Health Innovation Network is proud of the impact that we deliver with our partners in the NHS, academia and industry – from SMEs to multinationals – to improve patient outcomes, release capacity in the NHS to cut waiting lists and to drive economic growth, all priorities that are rightly recognised in this plan. The contribution the life sciences sector has to improve the health and wealth of the country is more evident now than ever. Through working locally with our vibrant life science sector, our health innovators, and our NHS staff we will deliver real change on the ground that has a national impact, and that supports the bold ambitions set out in the Life Sciences Sector Plan.
Our world-leading life sciences sector employs hundreds of thousands of people and is a powerhouse for economic growth that puts more money in people’s pockets. Our Plan for Change is ramping up this success story even further.
“The ten-year life sciences plan we have released today as part of our Industrial Strategy will cut red tape and deliver the investment we funded at the Spending Review so it can stay ahead of the curve globally and we can reap the economic rewards for years to come.
The life sciences sector is one of the crown jewels of the UK economy. It sits at the heart of both our Plan for Change, and our Modern Industrial strategy, as a unique catalyst for both economic prosperity, and better health outcomes for people across the UK.
Moving in lockstep with industry, academia and our NHS, we will unleash this sector as a force for good and for growth. The suite of measures we’re announcing today will unlock its full potential — attracting global investment, accelerating innovation, and delivering breakthroughs that will make the UK healthier, wealthier, and even more open for business.
This Life Sciences Sector Plan represents a pivotal moment in our mission to rebuild the NHS and shift our healthcare system from one that treats illness to one that prevents it.
By bringing together the brilliance of British science with the power of our NHS, we’re not just improving healthcare outcomes – we’re building a stronger economy and creating jobs across the country.
The £2 billion investment will help us make the most of our world-leading health data, speed up access to innovative treatments, and transform the experience of patients. This is how we deliver a health service fit for the future – by embracing innovation that saves lives, cuts waiting times, and makes the NHS sustainable for generations to come.
The plan comes just days on the same day as the fourth “Made in the UK, Sold to the World” Roadshow, a government-led initiative designed to boost SME exports in the Life Sciences sector.
The roadshow focuses on the 8 sectors highlighted in the modern industrial strategy, forming part of the government’s commitment to supporting high-growth industries with the greatest potential to create jobs, increase productivity, and drive long-term economic growth.
We’re committed to making the UK a life sciences superpower, and our modern Industrial Strategy has earmarked it as one of 8 priority sectors so it can double down on our strengths and keep us at the cutting edge of innovation.
“This government is taking the bold action needed to help this £108 billion industry flourish and create new high-skilled, well-paid jobs right across the country, making our Plan for Change a reality.
Read the Life Sciences Sector Plan here
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