Rare Cancers Bill

Ashley Dalton Excerpts

Friday 14th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Ashley Dalton)]

First, let me say how sorry I was to hear that my hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh South West (Dr Arthur) recently lost his father-in-law to glioblastoma. I congratulate him on introducing this legislation less than a year after his election. His wife and children will be immensely proud to see him in the Chamber today. He has the full support of many charities, such as Pancreatic Cancer UK, the Brain Tumour Charity and Cancer Research UK, as well as people up and down the country who have written to their MP urging them to join this debate and vote for the Bill.

I also pay tribute to all those right hon. and hon. Members who have lost loved ones and remembered them so powerfully today. I thank them for the courage that they have shown in sharing their stories. Particularly, I do not think that anyone in this Chamber or watching from the Gallery or beyond could have failed to be moved by the powerful stories from my hon. Friends the Members for Calder Valley (Josh Fenton-Glynn), for Cumbernauld and Kirkintilloch (Katrina Murray) and for Mitcham and Morden (Dame Siobhain McDonagh), to whom I give particular thanks for her tireless campaigning on glioblastoma following the untimely loss of her sister Margaret.

I also pay tribute to those who remembered their constituents. I am delighted that very soon I will be meeting my hon. Friend the Member for Hyndburn (Sarah Smith) and Lorraine to discuss Milly’s Smiles. Let me take the opportunity to add my memories of Joe Chilcott, the son of my friends Tim and Verity and sister to Ellie, who was diagnosed with a brain tumour at the age of 10. It was heartbreaking to lose him when he was just 18.

I thank all the hon. Members who have spoken today. I will seek to address as many of the issues raised as possible. There were so many stories. I recognise the people who were remembered in those stories, those in the Gallery, and the many more watching at home. They are willing the Bill to succeed. On behalf of the Government, it is my great pleasure to pledge our support for the Bill. We are undertaking fundamental reform of the NHS. People living with rare cancers must be at the heart of that change. Rare cancer patients deserve better, and the Bill gives them something that has been spoken about across the House today: new hope.

Let me begin my remarks on what the Bill will do, why we support it and our policy on rare cancers more generally. Clinical research is one of the most important ways in which we can improve healthcare, by identifying the best way to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer. The Bill will encourage the placement of clinical trials for rare cancer in England, by ensuring that the patient population can easily be contacted by researchers, streamlining the recruitment process. It will also ensure a Government review of regulations relevant to orphan drug designation, to ensure that they continue to deliver for patients. Innovations in the Bill will complement the radical actions that we are developing through the 10-year health plan and the national cancer plan to fix the NHS, on which I will expand later.

Research is a key part of this effort, which is why the Department of Health and Social Care, through the National Institute for Health and Care Research, invests more than £1.6 billion a year in health research. In 2023-24, the NIHR invested £133 million in cancer research. As we have heard, rare brain cancers such as glioblastoma have a devastating impact on people and their loved ones. That is why the NIHR announced in September 2024 a new package of funding opportunities for brain cancer research, and established in December a new national brain tumour research consortium, bringing together researchers from a wide range of different disciplines. That is in parallel with a dedicated funding call for research into wraparound care and the rehabilitation and quality of life of patients with brain tumours. We remain committed to accelerating new breakthroughs in high-quality research to drive improvement in the diagnosis, management and treatment of brain and other rare cancers, for better survival rates and patient outcomes.

The hon. Member for Esher and Walton (Monica Harding), my hon. Friend the Member for Mitcham and Morden and others asked how the £40 million promised for brain tumours has been spent. In the five years since 2018-19, the NIHR has invested £11.3 million directly in brain cancer, with a further £31.5 million to enable brain tumour research in 227 studies involving 8,500 people. The commitment remains in place. I can confirm that there is no upper limit on that funding. We are exploring additional research policy options to encourage more clinical trials in early phase research and the development of medical devices and diagnostics.

We have also talked a lot about other rare cancers, including lobular breast cancer, for which we are supporting research through the research infrastructure, including biomedical research centres. We welcome further funding applications for research on all conditions, including lobular breast cancer. We continue to consider whether abbreviated forms of breast magnetic resonance imagining —fast MRI—can detect breast cancers that are missed by screening through mammography, such as lobular and the other types of breast cancers that have been mentioned. We are also supporting the opening of 171 studies on blood cancer, providing an online registry called “Be Part of Research”, which allows users to search for and participate in studies relevant to them.

Clinical trials are a crucial part of cancer research. They provide patients with early access to groundbreaking and possibly lifesaving treatments. The measures in the Bill align strongly with our commitment to that, and aim to streamline clinical trial recruitment processes. My hon. Friend the Member for Mitcham and Morden spoke passionately about how long it takes trusts to negotiate contracts. We recognise that issue and are beginning to make progress. NHS commercial contracting has been standardised, and the national contract value review has reduced study set-up times by 36%, from 305 days to 194 days in the first 12 months’ analysis. We continue in that work.

The hon. Member for Wokingham (Clive Jones) and my hon. Friend the Member for Bootle (Peter Dowd) asked how we are working across borders. We are taking forward the most significant reform of UK clinical trial regulations in over 20 years, while maintaining robust protections and safeguarding for clinical trial participants. The MHRA already authorises cross-border clinical trials, including those conducted in the EU and on UK-based trial sites. The “Be Part of Research” programme uses information from national and international sources.

My hon. Friend the Member for Mitcham and Morden spoke so passionately—we have all commented on her passion and anger. I appreciate her frustration and share her desire for radical action. I think we can all agree that the Government’s announcement yesterday on scrapping NHS England demonstrates our willingness to be bold, take risks and do things differently.

Members raised several other matters. I will come back to them all with more detailed information on those issues, but I do not have the time to do so today. I will address the national cancer plan, however, which was raised a number of times. It is really important to fulfil our goal of transforming cancer care, and we will not just cherry-pick the most common cancers; we need a rising tide that will lift all ships. As a person who is living with an incurable cancer myself, I cannot overstate how deeply I feel the honour and responsibility of being asked to drive forward our work in creating the national cancer plan—it is my absolute honour. But while we take strides to fix cancer services, I am under no illusion that the Government or I hold all the answers, so my plea is for hon. Members to work with us and share their expertise. I ask them please to visit “Shaping the national cancer plan” on the Department’s website and to contribute evidence.

The Government are committed to making a real difference for patients with rare cancers. For those affected by this devastating disease, every discovery, every treatment and every moment matters. We will do all we can to facilitate the passage of this Bill here and in the other place.