Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the National Cancer Plan will include policies on (a) identifying and (b) treating brain tumours.

My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has announced that a National Cancer Plan for England will be published this year. The Prime Minister’s Health Mission sets the objective of building a National Health Service fit for the future, and an essential part of this is achieving our goal to reduce the number of lives lost to cancer.

The National Cancer Plan will have patients at its heart and will cover the entirety of the cancer pathway, from referral and diagnosis to treatment and ongoing care, and will apply to all cancer types, including brain tumours. It will seek to improve every aspect of cancer care to improve the experience and outcomes for people with cancer. Our goal is to reduce the number of lives lost to cancer over the next 10 years.

We are committed to working closely with partners and patient groups to shape the long-term vision for cancer. The Department is planning to engage with cancer partners, charities, and those within the cancer community, seeking the views of individuals, professionals, and organisations to understand how we can do more to achieve this ambition.

To do this, on 4 February 2025, we launched a Call for Evidence, in which the views of people from across the country will inform our plan to improve cancer care. Those who wish to share their views can do so on the new online platform, Shaping the national cancer plan, which is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/calls-for-evidence/shaping-the-national-cancer-plan

Alongside this work, the Department, NHS England, and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) are taking several steps to help improve outcomes for brain tumour patients.

NHS England is committed to ensuring that all cancer patients are offered Holistic Needs Assessment and Personalised Care and Support Planning, ensuring care is focused on what matters most to each person. As well as this, all patients, including those with secondary cancers, will have access to the right expertise and support, including a Clinical Nurse Specialist or other support worker.

Further to this, in September 2024, the NIHR announced new research funding opportunities for brain cancer research, spanning both adult and paediatric populations. This includes a national NIHR Brain Tumour Research Consortium, to ensure that the most promising research opportunities are made available to adult and child patients, and a new funding call to generate high quality evidence in brain tumour care, support, and rehabilitation.