Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of providing brain tumour patients access to clinical trials.

The Department is committed to ensuring that innovative, lifesaving treatments are accessible to National Health Service patients, including those with brain tumours, and to implementing the recommendations of Lord O'Shaughnessy’s review into commercial clinical trials, making sure that the United Kingdom leads the world in clinical trials.

The Department funds research and research infrastructure, which supports brain tumour patients and the public to participate in high-quality research, through the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR).

In September 2024, the NIHR announced a new approach to transform the outcomes for patients and their families who are living with brain tumours, ultimately reducing the lives lost to cancer, with a new national Brain Tumour Research Consortium, a new research funding call, and a new Tessa Jowell Allied Health Professional research fellowship.