Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has had discussions with Integrated Care Boards on commissioning pathways for suspected brain tumours in primary care.

The Department and NHS England published the 2025/26 priorities and operational planning guidance, which instructs integrated care boards (ICB) and primary care services to reform pathways in the National Health Service for all patients, including for cancer patients and those with brain tumours.

The Elective Reform Plan, published January 2025, also specifies the actions systems and providers are expected to take in 2025/26, including driving pathway reform, for instance through straight to test pathway approaches. General practice (GP) teams are currently able to directly access tests for patients in several imaging modalities, including ultrasound, X-ray, computerised tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging.

NHS England also achieved the full implementation of the non-specific symptom (NSS) pathways across England, which allows GPs to refer patients for further tests when they display symptoms that could indicate cancer, but which do not align to specific cancers, including for brain cancer symptoms. There are currently 115 live NSS services.

Furthermore, the Department announced the development of a new National Cancer Plan, to be published this year. The plan will have patients at its heart and will cover the entirety of the cancer pathway, from referral and diagnosis to treatment and aftercare. In developing the plan, the Department will consider how to streamline cancer pathways and ways to improve outcomes for cancer patients, including those with brain cancer.