Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has considered using brain tumour research funding announced in 2018 to fund an increase in the speed of research into new treatments.

In May 2018 the Government made a commitment to spend £40 million on brain cancer research. Between 2018/19 and 2023/24, the Department, via the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), directly invested £11.8 million in research projects and programmes focused on brain tumours. The NIHR has also invested approximately £37.5 million in research infrastructure to support the delivery of 261 brain tumour research studies and to enable over 11,400 people to participate in potentially life-changing brain tumour research.

The Government is working closely with the patient and researcher communities to provide new funding opportunities for novel brain tumour research and is stimulating high-quality research applications through: establishing a national Brain Tumour Research Consortium to bring together researchers from different disciplines to drive scientific advancements in how to prevent, detect, manage, and treat brain tumours; a dedicated funding call for research into wraparound care and rehabilitation for people living with brain tumours; and a partnership with the Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission to fund the next generation of researchers through the Allied Health Professionals Brain Tumour Research Fellowship programme.