Brain Tumours: Research and Treatment

Debate between Ashley Dalton and Helen Morgan

Thursday 8th May 2025 Commons Chamber

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

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Mitcham and Morden (Dame Siobhain McDonagh) and the hon. Member for Witney (Charlie Maynard) for securing this vitally important debate. They have both been powerful voices in this place for more research, greater care and better treatments for patients with brain tumours. My hon. Friend spoke so powerfully, as always, and in the name of her sister Margaret. I thank the hon. Member for Witney for sharing his sister’s story. I commend her for her fundraising activity and wish her the very best. The hon. Member asked three very clear questions, which I hope my response will cover.

I also thank other Members who made powerful contributions in what has been a very constructive debate. I hope my responses will answer their queries, but if not, I will endeavour to write to all Members following this debate about any gaps that are left. The hon. Member for Edinburgh West (Christine Jardine) spoke about disparity of drug access. My right hon. Friend the Member for Hayes and Harlington (John McDonnell) asked for zest, and spoke about the requirement for it. He expressed the frustrations of the APPG and others at the speed at which we are able to make progress. The hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) spoke about the importance of research, and my hon. Friend the Member for Bolton West (Phil Brickell) spoke about clinical trials. The hon. Member for Leicester South (Shockat Adam) brought his expertise on optometry to bear, and spoke about how useful an eye test can be. The hon. Member for North Shropshire (Helen Morgan), the Liberal Democrat spokesperson, talked about low-grade tumours. I commend her constituents, whom she spoke about, for their work.

I thank the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Hinckley and Bosworth (Dr Evans), for sharing the story of Isla’s stones. What a powerful metaphor and a powerful remembrance. He also spoke about the acquired brain injury strategy. My remarks will focus on brain tumours, but I can confirm that the ABI strategy remains in play and in development. I will update the House on that as soon as possible. First, I pay tribute to some fantastic charities for their advocacy—the Brain Tumour Charity, Brain Tumour Research, Cancer Research UK and Tom’s Trust, to name just a few.

Innovative research is vital in our fight against this devastating disease if we are to offer people the most cutting-edge treatments and the highest-quality care. The Department of Health and Social Care, through the National Institute for Health and Care Research, invests over £1.6 billion per year in research. In the past financial year alone, it invested over £130 million specifically in cancer research. That has enabled 261 brain tumour studies to happen in the NHS, involving 11,400 people in potentially life-changing research over the past six years. Since 2018, the NIHR has directly invested almost £12 million in brain tumour research projects; it has also spent around £37.5 million on wider infrastructure investments in facilities, services and the research workforce, making research possible. In addition, over five years, between 2020 and 2024, the Medical Research Council committed more than £18.5 million to brain tumour research.

Our investments are having an impact. NIHR-funded research has shown that a new targeted drug combination treatment can give better outcomes for one of the most common types of paediatric brain cancer, but of course there is still so much more to do. Too little is known about how to prevent, diagnose and manage brain tumours, and they remain one of the hardest cancers to treat and a challenging area for research. That is why we are committed to furthering our investment in brain cancer research and have already taken some steps to stimulate scientific progress. I would like to offer the House just three examples from the past year.

First, in September, the NIHR announced a new package of funding opportunities for brain cancer research for both adults and children. Secondly, in December, the NIHR established a new national brain tumour research consortium. The consortium brings together research from a range of disciplines and institutions to drive faster scientific advancements in how we prevent, detect, manage and treat brain cancer. This complements the NIHR’s dedicated funding call on research into wraparound care, rehabilitation and quality of life for patients with brain tumours. It has received a high volume of applications, and those applications are under consideration by an independent expert peer review panel.

Thirdly, the Department is working actively as a member of the Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission to fully support the vision of bringing the best care to all brain tumour patients in the UK. Together, we will work with the brain tumour community to accelerate research and bring new insights to the field. This summer, the mission will launch the Tessa Jowell allied health professional research fellowship to train early-career health professionals in conducting vital research on how we improve patients’ quality of life.

The commitment to spend at least £40 million on brain cancer remains in place. The limiting factor has not been restrictions on funding, or funds being spent elsewhere, and every research proposal assessed as being fundable has been funded. My Department is now focusing on how we grow the scientific community working on brain cancer to get more research funded. We are committed to increasing spending on brain cancer research, and the £40 million target is not a funding ceiling—it will not end there. However, it is important that only high-quality applications be funded, so that public funds are invested well and produce impactful and usable research evidence. We will continue to work hand in glove with partners who fund research on new scientific discoveries, such as Cancer Research UK, the Medical Research Council and brain tumour charities. We stand ready to translate these much-needed discoveries as quickly as possible into new treatments for patients via the NIHR.

My hon. Friend the Member for Mitcham and Morden raised the issue of partnerships with industry to develop treatments, and I can confirm that we are committed to working with the pharmaceutical industry and others with the common aim of creating a faster, more efficient, more accessible and innovative clinical treatment delivery system. We expect these efforts to attract more commercial investment in clinical research, and to yield a broad and diverse portfolio of clinical trials in the UK, so that we can provide innovative treatment options for patients, including those with glioblastoma. The new brain tumour research consortium, to which I have referred, will bring together people to work on that, and will work to detect, manage and treat rarer and less survivable cancers in children and adults.

Clinical trials are a crucial part of cancer research. They are the key to advanced medical progress, improved patient outcomes and more hope for the future. Britain is already one of the best destinations in the world for clinical trials, but we want to go further. On 7 April, the Prime Minister announced action to accelerate the set-up and delivery of clinical trials; the time taken to set up studies will be cut to 150 days by March next year, down from 250 days, according to the latest data, which was collected in 2022.

The Department of Health and Social Care is committed to being a world-leading destination for clinical trials. Work is ongoing to streamline and reform the set-up and delivery of clinical trials through digitalisation, and by reducing unnecessary bureaucracy. That is driving a “right research, right setting” initiative, and we are moving from reactive to proactive portfolio management, including by supporting the workforce and continuing to embed a research and innovation culture across the health and social care system.

The Government also support the private Member’s Bill on rare cancers, brought forward by my hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh South West (Dr Arthur). The Bill will make it easier for clinical trials on rare cancers to take place in England by ensuring that the patient population can be easily contacted.

This Government are committed to backing innovative clinical research ecosystems in the UK, so that British patients can be among the first to benefit. We will bust bureaucracy, fast-track clinical trials and give patients improved access to cutting-edge treatments and technologies, including for brain tumours. “Be Part of Research” is our landmark service, allowing people from all walks of life across the UK to find and participate in research relevant to them, which could transform lives. I urge everybody watching at home to sign up to “Be Part of Research” and to get involved.

We have spoken about medicines repurposing, whereby medicines approved for a particular condition are used in new ways to treat different conditions. Repurposing drugs may have particular value for rare cancers, such as brain cancers, for which drug development has been limited. As my hon. Friend the Member for Mitcham and Morden noted, NHS England has suspended its medicines repurposing programme, but not because it is unimportant; it has shown that opportunities to use existing medicines in new ways can be delivered without the support of a formal repurposing programme, including, for example, through local off-label prescribing. This creates opportunities for NIHR and other funders to support proposals for clinical trials that use repurposed drugs for rare cancers. We will help researchers work with industry and clinicians to strengthen the evidence base for new drugs, and for new uses of drugs, so that we can find out how patients can best be helped.

[Helen Morgan]

How well will that work be co-ordinated if it is done on a local, sporadic basis, and how will the repurposing of drugs be co-ordinated centrally if NHS England is no longer undertaking that work?

[Ashley Dalton]

NHS England has found that creating that environment does not necessarily provide new and better ways of repurposing drugs, and that can be done far more efficiently and far less bureaucratically by using local off-label prescribing. We are looking at how we can incentivise researchers and clinical trials to explore repurposing drugs.

We are determined to make the NIHR and other funders grasp opportunities to support those proposals. We will help researchers work with industry and clinicians to strengthen the evidence base for new drugs.

The NHS is working hard to diagnose and treat cancers on time. There is more to do on early diagnosis and faster treatment, in order to improve patient experience and survival. The NHS is focused on improving diagnostic waiting times, and on providing MRI, CT and other tests to reduce cancer waits, because, as Lord Darzi’s investigation has shown, we face significant challenges if we are to bring this country’s cancer survival rates back up to the standard of the best in the world. We know that the best way to improve survival for those with brain tumours, and with all cancers, is to diagnose patients early and treat them quickly.

In our first six months, 80,000 more patients received a diagnosis or an all-clear within 28 days than did in the previous year, thanks to investment in cutting NHS waiting lists. In March, more than 80% of patients in England referred for cancer had it ruled out or diagnosed within 28 days—it is the first time that target has been met in years—but we must go further, and we will. Our reforms to cancer care will see more than 100,000 people diagnosed faster, and thousands more starting treatment within two months across the NHS.

There is no single solution to this complex challenge. That is why my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State, has been clear that there will be a national cancer plan published later this year. This plan will ensure that rarer cancers, including brain cancers, will not be left behind. It is my absolute privilege, as a person with cancer, to be driving that cancer plan. I am delighted that we have so far received more than 11,000 representations as part of the call for evidence. I can assure my hon. Friend the Member for Mitcham and Morden that her contributions and all others will be taken seriously.

The Liberal Democrat spokesperson also talked about low-grade cancers. There is a difference between staging and grading, and it is important that we are clear about that. Low-grade brain tumours are considered non-cancerous, and they grow more slowly and are less likely to spread, but although low-grade brain tumours are generally non-cancerous, they can have similar serious symptoms, and require surgery or radiotherapy to treat them. The Government are investing in new life-saving and life-improving research to support people diagnosed with those cancers.

In closing, for those affected by this devastating disease, every discovery, every treatment and every moment matters. We recognise that more needs to be done to stimulate high-quality, high-impact research into brain tumours. Through our targeted package of support, that is what we will do. We completely understand the strength of feeling on this issue, not least because three Ministers in the Department of Health and Social Care are cancer survivors. We know how terrifying it is to receive a diagnosis. We have sat in waiting rooms, hoping for good news and fearing the worst—and we have heard the worst. We have had those difficult conversations with our loved ones and seen the devastating impact on their lives. That is why we are committed to making a real difference for patients with brain cancer. We will leave no stone unturned until they get the first-class care that they deserve. I look forward to further discussing how we can achieve this when I meet members of the all-party parliamentary group on brain tumours next week.

Ambulance Response Times

Debate between Ashley Dalton and Helen Morgan

Thursday 6th March 2025 Westminster Hall

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

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Jardine. I am grateful to the hon. Member for Glastonbury and Somerton (Sarah Dyke) for securing the debate. I thank all the hon. Members who have taken part, including my hon. Friends the Members for Redditch (Chris Bloore), for Ilford South (Jas Athwal) and for Wolverhampton West (Warinder Juss), and the hon. Members for West Suffolk (Nick Timothy) and for South Devon (Caroline Voaden), as well as the Liberal Democrat spokesperson, the hon. Member for North Shropshire (Helen Morgan), and the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Sleaford and North Hykeham (Dr Johnson). I will endeavour to deal with as many issues and questions as I can. If I do miss any, will hon. Members please get in touch with me afterwards, and I will make sure they are picked up?

The hon. Member for West Suffolk mentioned the commitment made by the Secretary of State to meet him and visit his constituency, and I will ensure that that issue is raised. The parliamentary private secretary, my hon. Friend the Member for Ealing Southall (Deirdre Costigan), is here, and I am sure she will be happy to pursue a response. We will also do what we can to get a response from the Treasury for the shadow Minister.

The hon. Member for Glastonbury and Somerton and other hon. Members rightly raised constituents� experiences of long waits for an ambulance response. I put on record my deepest sympathies for the hon. Lady�s constituent Jim on the loss of his wife. As the Secretary of State has made clear, this is not the level of care that staff want for their patients, and it is not the level of care that this Government will ever accept for patients.

Lord Darzi investigated the issues facing the NHS, and his report was honest about the challenges facing the health service. Urgent and emergency care performance remains a long way from a resilient position and there is continued high demand for A&E and ambulance services, with ongoing seasonal winter pressures. For example, in December the London Ambulance Service recorded more than 121,000 incidents, the highest on record for the service. Improvement needs to happen across the urgent and emergency care pathway and through the expansion of neighbourhood health services.

Nationally, congested emergency departments reduce the productivity of ambulance services, a matter that I think almost all hon. Members raised. A huge amount of time is lost to ambulance handover delays because there is no space for patients. Having crews tied up waiting outside hospitals exacerbates poor ambulance response times. We have also seen the continued normalisation of corridor care. We will never accept patients being treated in corridors; it is unsafe and undignified. We are investing an extra �26 billion to begin turning around the NHS, and we will do all we can, as fast as we can, to consign corridor care to the history books.

Lord Darzi�s investigation into NHS performance highlighted wide variation across different parts of the country. The situation is unfair to patients and goes against the principle of a universal service. I acknowledge that there can be challenges in rural areas, where longer distances often mean that patients wait much longer for ambulances than in urban areas. I often find myself in this place with the hon. Member for Glastonbury and Somerton, and we both talk about the experience in our rural constituencies. I assure her that that is on my agenda. As she says, ambulance response times for the south-west and some other areas highlight the rurality differential.

In January, the South Western Ambulance Service�s average response for category 2 emergency incidents, which include strokes and heart attacks, was 51 minutes and 45 seconds, which is 26 minutes longer than the best-performing ambulance trust in England. The NHS constitutional standard for category 2 average response times is 18 minutes, and no ambulance trust in England has met that target since the pandemic. This cannot go on. Prioritising patient safety will always be the Government�s and the NHS�s main focus. We are committed to getting A&E waiting times and ambulance response times back to NHS constitutional standards.

The independent review of ambulance trust culture was published in February 2024. Its recommendations included addressing workforce pressures. NHS England is working closely with ambulance trusts to implement those recommendations. We have made some significant investments in the ambulance workforce, and the number of NHS ambulance staff has grown by 9% compared with last year, but we recognise that there is much more to do on retention and wellbeing for ambulance staff. That is something that we will continue to work on.

We cannot keep plugging the gaps. There is a need for more fundamental reform. We have been clear that there are no quick fixes and that to turn things around will take investment and reform. We have provided the highest real-terms capital budget for the NHS since before 2010. We announced an extra �22.6 billion in day-to-day health spending and an additional �3.1 billion further capital investment over two years. That extra investment will be accompanied by fundamental reform, of which ambulance services.

In January, the Government published �Road to recovery: the government�s 2025 mandate to NHS England�, which clearly sets out delivery instructions for the NHS through the prioritisation of the five key objectives aimed at driving reform in the NHS. Improving A&E and ambulance service performance was also one of a small number of prioritised objectives in the Government�s mandate to NHS England to specifically start to address the current challenges facing urgent and emergency care.

In turn, NHS England�s planning guidance for this year includes the target to improve average category 2 ambulance response times to no more than 30 minutes across 2025-26. The guidance also sets out a range of key actions for the NHS to deliver in the same timeframe, focused on reducing avoidable ambulance dispatches and conveyances and reducing hospital handover delays.

[Helen Morgan]

Will the Minister pick up on the point about social care? Inability to admit to hospital is a key point in the handover delay problem, and the social care talks are a key measure in solving it.

[Ashley Dalton]

The hon. Member will be delighted to know that I am coming to that point next.

We are working on reducing delays and getting hospital handovers back to within 15 minutes, ensuring that no handover between hospital and ambulance services takes longer than 45 minutes. We want to improve the range and co-ordination of services to avoid unnecessary ambulance conveyances, including through improving access to urgent community response and hospital at home services, and continuing to build on ambulance services and the great work that they do to increase the hear and treat rates so that people can be advised on what they can do and what services they can access that might mean they do not need that ambulance. We will also be driving consistency and commissioning practices across England for ambulance services. I will say a little more about the rurality element in a moment.

We are taking the first steps in the reform and improvements that we want to see in services, and we will shortly set out further plans in the urgent and emergency care services plan. We know that there is no solution for ambulances that does not include tackling the challenges facing adult social care. Health and care services need to be more joined up.

Today, there are approximately 12,000 patients in hospital beds who have no criteria to reside. They do not need to be there but cannot be discharged for reasons of capacity. Over the last month, on average, 276 of the patients with no criteria to reside were in the Somerset integrated board area. That is why the Government are making available up to �3.7 billion of additional funding for local authorities that provide social care. We are funding more home adaptations through the disabled facilities grant this year and next, so that people�s homes can be safer, reducing the risk of their needing an ambulance. We are reforming the better care fund to ensure that the pooled NHS and local authority funding spent on social care contributes to wider efforts to reduce emergency admissions and delayed discharges.