Rare Cancers Bill

Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth Excerpts

Friday 16th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Con)]

My Lords, it is a great pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, who always speaks with authority on these issues. I particularly agree with her and the noble Lord, Lord Patel, on the timescales; anything that can be done to compress them would be very welcome.

I associate myself with others who have congratulated the noble Baroness, Lady Elliott of Whitburn Bay, and thanked her for bringing forward this extremely important legislation. I also thank the honourable Member for Edinburgh South West, Dr Scott Arthur, for introducing the Bill in the other place. Although we spend a lot on cancer research funding, we do not spend nearly enough, and this legislation will help with that.

There are three key things about this legislation; they have been referred to, but I too will stress them. The first is about the role of the Secretary of State in relation to orphan drugs—treatments that pharmaceutical companies do not pursue because of a lack of commercial return. That is something that a review will highlight, and action needs to follow from that.

Secondly, the contact registry is vital. This legislation will facilitate that work and bring it forward. My noble friend Lord O’Shaughnessy has done a lot of work in that regard, and I am sure that his contribution to this legislation will be considerable.

Thirdly, the legislation also provides, as has been said, for a named individual responsible for overseeing the delivery of research into rare cancer treatments. Nothing could be more vital than having that champion against rare cancers, and I very much welcome that.

I will move from the schematic and general thrust of this legislation to the deeply personal. The fight against cancer—against any illness—should unite us all. Indeed, it does so irrespective of party, race, colour, gender, age or social background. The very words “rare cancers” lend to cancer an exoticism it does not deserve. To sufferers and to their families and friends, it is a cancer, plain and simple—a cancer that they want to combat and defeat.

One such sufferer, whom I know and who is in the Public Gallery today, is Dan Horrocks. He is a parliamentary assistant in the Commons. He is a father, a husband and a four-times cancer survivor. He has fought this dreadful disease—in his case, brain tumours—over the last 14 years. For Dan, and for millions of others of sufferers and their families and friends, this legislation is more than welcome, and it deserves our wholehearted support.