Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Life Sciences of 18 April 2016, Official Report, column 262WH, what progress he has made in convening a task and finish working group for brain tumour research; and if he will make a statement.

The Department of Health Task and Finish Working Group on Brain Tumour Research is bringing together clinicians, charities and officials to discuss how, working together with research funding partners, we can address the need to increase the level and impact of research into this devastating disease.

The Working Group will be chaired by Professor Chris Whitty, the Department’s Chief Scientific Adviser, and will report directly to me. I anticipate that the Working Group will need to meet in person three times before completing its tasks by September 2017.