Cancer (Reporting and Strategy) Bill

Alison McGovern Excerpts

Friday 13th November 2026 Commons Chamber

[The Minister for Social Care and Mental Health (Alison McGovern)]

I congratulate the hon. Member for Wokingham (Clive Jones) on introducing the Bill. I was 12 when my dad was first diagnosed with cancer; I was 29, and standing for election to this House for the first time, when he had his most recent major cancer treatment; and, as the House knows, my mum died of cancer in July after a painful period of serious illness, at the age of 73, so I like to think that when it comes to experience of this disease, I am no ignoramus.

We have heard from colleagues just how important this issue is to all of us in the House. I know that colleagues across the House will welcome the progress that we have made, just as they have welcomed the Government’s cancer plan. Around 290,000 more people over the last 12 months have had cancer diagnosed or ruled out within 28 days. The number of patients who have received treatment within 62 days of referral is up to 70% over the last 12 months, from 66%. But I am under no illusion about the work still to do and the urgency that patients rightly expect from this Government.

[Olivia Bailey (Reading West and Mid Berkshire) (Lab)]

I associate myself with the Minister’s thanks to my near neighbour, the hon. Member for Wokingham (Clive Jones), who has done important work campaigning on cancer—I thank him for it. I also think a key part of our fight against cancer is those who fundraise for cancer research. Will my hon. Friend congratulate my constituent Stephen, who is in the Gallery today, on raising £1,600 walking 26 miles in the London Shine Night Walk for cancer research?

[Alison McGovern]

I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention. Of course, fundraising is really important, and I offer my thanks to Stephen. I hope he has enjoyed the debate so far. He has done a great thing.

I have paid close attention to what the hon. Member for Wokingham said today. Colleagues on all sides are listening with sympathetic ears. All of us want our constituents to have earlier cancer diagnosis and better treatment, and to improve patient experience, ensuring that the progress we are making in the NHS is, as he points out it should be, transparent and accountable. While I share his ambition, I am sorry to say that the Government are unable to support his Bill, because we do not think that its provisions are necessary. Ultimately, the hon. Gentleman’s Bill rests on two principles: that there should be a clear national strategy for improving cancer outcomes; and that the Government should be transparent about the progress we are making.

[Clive Jones]

Will the Minister arrange for me and the charities who support the Bill to see the Minister who will be responsible for the national cancer plan, so we can work together to ensure there is proper parliamentary scrutiny?

[Alison McGovern]

I feel sure that the Minister responsible for this area of policy will arrange such meetings. I will make available to him a copy of this debate so he can read for himself how important it is. I would say in a supportive way to the hon. Gentleman that we now have a cancer strategy that will improve outcomes over the next 10 years. I hope colleagues will also recognise that we have been unflinchingly honest about the scale of the challenge we face. We will always do so. We cannot sugarcoat the current situation, even while we all want to offer our constituents some hope.

We have a 10-year national cancer plan to make England a world leader in cancer outcomes. It is very important that it succeeds. It is a plan that sets out more than 100 actions to improve cancer survival, increase earlier diagnosis, recover performance against waiting time standards, and improve the quality of life for people living with and beyond cancer. We published the plan in February this year and, starting on its first anniversary, we will publish an annual report that will measure our progress against each of these targets every year. It will be freely available online and accessible to all. At the end of three years, we will also publish a complete and honest account of what we have got right and where we need to go further.

When it comes to improving the plan, no options are off the table. I want to express my sincere thanks to our friend, my hon. Friend the Member for West Lancashire (Ashley Dalton). I am delighted that she has agreed to rejoin us as an adviser on the national cancer plan’s implementation. She knows how important it is that we get this right and she has already done some pretty inspirational work on the first draft of the plan. But I know she would be the first say that wherever the plan is falling short we should and we will improve it. It is not a question of creating new legislation or statutory requirements when we have a cancer plan; our priority should be to crack on with the job.

While we get on with that job, I welcome scrutiny from the hon. Member for Wokingham and from all other Members in this place as they rightly hold the Government to account. Accountability is already being built into the way we deliver the plan. For example, in September we followed through on a commitment to establish a new National Cancer Board, bringing together leaders from across the cancer community, to set strategic direction, give independent challenge and make sure we are keeping up momentum towards our goals.

A few weeks ago, the hon. Member for Wokingham asked the Prime Minister to look at this proposal, and his suggestion was shared with the National Cancer Board. I can update the House that the board has now provided its views to Ministers, and those views have helped shape the Government’s position today.

As I have said, the board deliberately brings together people with different roles and different perspectives. We would not expect every member to agree on this issue. Some members have noted support for the Bill and its ambitions to put cancer strategy and reporting on a statutory footing, while others have concerns and worry that creating a parallel statutory framework could duplicate the national cancer plan, cause confusion for patients and the public and create additional reporting requirements without necessarily improving delivery.

Board members, however, share a clear expectation that reporting on the national cancer plan must provide a transparent account of progress, including where delivery is off track and, importantly, what action is being taken to get it back on track.

[Amanda Martin]

Will the Minister give way?

[Alison McGovern]

Very briefly.

[Amanda Martin]

I thank the Minister for taking the intervention. On that note, will she look at the issues with recruiting cancer specialists, particularly in coastal towns and cities such as Portsmouth?

--- Later in debate ---

[Alison McGovern]

As the hon. Lady says, recruitment is very important—I am sure that the Minister with responsibility for the plan will look at that issue.

Our commitment to publishing an annual report on progress against the national cancer plan is intended to deliver these insights into where the plan is off track, and to spur action to address any problems. The hon. Member for Wokingham has recognised that commitment, but I understand that he is worried that a future Government might choose to stop these annual reports. Even if today’s Bill is passed, a future Government, if they were intent on ceasing annual reports, could undo what the hon. Gentleman’s Bill seeks to do with a simple vote, just as commitments made in legislation on child poverty were undone.

However, we have listened carefully to the wider point that the hon. Gentleman is making about accountability. Following the views of the National Cancer Board, we are strengthening our approach further. We have taken on board suggestions from Macmillan and Cancer52 that the annual national cancer plan progress report should not simply be published, but laid before Parliament and accompanied by an oral statement from the Secretary of State. We will make that further commitment, which I hope reassures the hon. Gentleman that we share his determination to ensure that Parliament can scrutinise our progress and hold us to account.

The national cancer plan was written by a collective of people who care about this issue, and it takes action across the whole pathway. We are supporting the NHS to transform diagnostic services with £1.65 billion-worth of spending, including through new surgical hubs and state-of-the-art diagnostic scanners. Just last week, we announced that a world-leading new cancer blood test trial is being launched across at least 200 GP practices in England. We have invested £70 million into new cutting-edge radiotherapy machines, and exciting progress has been made on research with the cancer vaccines launchpad, which has now been expanded to support eight clinical trials. If I may test your patience, Madam Deputy Speaker, I also congratulate the world-leading research that is done at the Clatterbridge cancer centre in Liverpool, which is very close to my heart.

We are also delivering commitments to improve quality and consistency of care. The Royal College of Physicians and Macmillan Cancer Support have recently published what is called a clinical consensus statement on acute and supportive oncology, establishing a common framework for service development. We are developing a new generation of cancer manuals and treatment. I could go on, but I just want to mention that, for children and young people with cancer, the Government are committing up £10 million a year to a new fund to help with the cost of travelling to and from principal treatment centres, for reasons that will be obvious to Members.

We are giving rarer cancers the dedicated attention and leadership that they deserve. We have appointed Dr Robert Metcalf as the national clinical lead for rare cancers, giving patients a powerful voice and clinical leadership. This work also includes renewing our focus on brain cancer. Last month, my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister and the Health Secretary met Archie Goodburn to discuss new action that we are taking on brain cancer. We will appoint a new national brain tumour clinical lead in the coming months.

This subject is of great importance to us all, and I therefore thank the hon. Member for Wokingham for bringing his Bill forward, and for the very constructive way in which he and his colleagues have approached the matter. I hope he can see that he has impacted the decisions that the Government have made. It is not the Government’s view that we need further legislation, but it is our view that we must work collectively to do much better with independent checks to improve treatment outcomes and to help people live better with cancer.