Cancer (Reporting and Strategy) Bill

Nusrat Ghani Excerpts

Friday 13th November 2026 Commons Chamber

[Rosie Wrighting (Kettering) (Lab)]

Do you share my delight to see—

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

Order. Ms Wrighting, it is not “you”, which means me; it is “the hon. Member”.

[Rosie Wrighting]

Apologies, Madam Deputy Speaker. Does the hon. Member share my delight to see the former Minister who wrote the national cancer plan appointed as the national cancer plan adviser? That shows how seriously this Government take progress in this area.

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[Clive Jones]

Thank you very much for your intervention.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

Order. Mr Jones, you are speaking through the Chair. If Back Benchers make eye contact with the Chair, they will know that they are speaking through the Chair. When you say “you” and “your”, you are speaking to me—but, obviously, you are responding to another Member in the Chamber. It is best to remember that. The floor is yours, Mr Jones.

[Clive Jones]

Thank you very much, Madam Deputy Speaker.

The national cancer plan does contain a plan for regular reporting, but the Bill would make reporting happen every year. It would make this Government and future Governments report yearly. That is very important. Annual reporting is absolutely essential if we are to understand whether ambition is being realised. It will help us to identify where performance is improving, where it is falling behind and where action is needed.

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[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

Time is very tight, and I cannot set time limits. If colleagues speak for around five minutes, I will be able to squeeze in a few more Members.

[Dr Scott Arthur (Edinburgh South West) (Lab)]

To start with a slight aside, it is fantastic to see my hon. Friend the Member for Birkenhead (Alison McGovern) on the Government Front Bench. Some of her comments this week on social media regarding the stories about violence against women and girls have been really moving for me, and they have been amazing leadership from her, so I thank her.

Returning to the Bill, we should be in no doubt that the Government’s national cancer plan for England sets a genuinely ambitious vision—a vision to transform the lives of millions of patients and families affected by cancer. The Bill before us aims to turn that vision into reality, or at least help to do so. It has cancer patients at its heart, and would create a new era of transparency and accountability, ensuring that good intentions are matched with meaningful action and measurable progress. I thank the hon. Member for Wokingham (Clive Jones) for presenting it.

The Bill strongly supports the ambitions already set out in the national cancer plan. In particular, it reinforces action 14, which recognises that greater transparency drives improvement, and action 21, which commits the National Cancer Board to report annually on progress and carry out a comprehensive review every three years. I accept that as the hon. Member for Wokingham has already outlined, we do not need to put the plan on a statutory footing. I hope Labour remains in power for the remaining 10 years—or almost 10 years—of the cancer plan, but I worry that some other Government might not take that plan quite so seriously, which is why it is important that we consider a statutory requirement for reporting.

However, this is not just about plans, targets or reporting mechanisms. As we have heard, the Bill is backed by 64 cancer charities. As Members of Parliament, many of us have attended those charities’ receptions, posed for photographs and heard about their remarkable work. Today, they are asking something more of us: to take a small but important step by supporting the Bill. I have to declare an interest, because I am wearing my Cancer Research UK tie; it was a gift to me, and I am very grateful for it. I also have to reflect that this week, I went to a Blood Cancer UK event, which was focused on raising money for trials that it is running. At that event, I met a young woman who is living with myeloma, and another young woman whose father died of myeloma last year. They are both fantastic people, and they want us to support the Bill.

This year alone, around 400,000 people in the UK will hear the words, “You have cancer.” Behind every one of those diagnoses is a person—a mother, a father, a husband, a wife, a son, a daughter or a friend. Those 64 charities speak for those people; indeed, they speak for all of us, because statistically, one in two of us will receive a cancer diagnosis during our lifetime. Cancer touches every constituency, every community and almost every family in this country, and those charities do more than just speak for patients; together, they fund more cancer research than the Government. That is something we should always remember. They have put their expertise, their resources and their credibility behind this Bill, because they know it will help make a difference.

At its heart, the Bill is a modest proposal. It does not ask for billions in new spending—at least, I hope not, Madam Deputy Speaker—and it does not create a vast new bureaucracy. It simply asks that we measure progress, report it honestly, and hold ourselves accountable for the outcomes that matter to patients. If we are serious about getting cancer back on track, about delivering on the ambitions of the national cancer plan—which I do not doubt that we are—and about improving outcomes for the millions of people affected by cancer, we should support the Bill. I understand some of the reservations people have, and I hope they can be explored further in the debate.

If not, I hope the Bill will, at the very least, make it to Committee, because there is something in this. We should take seriously the fact that so many charities support the Bill.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

The hon. Gentleman took four minutes and 50 seconds; colleagues will appreciate that.

[Vikki Slade (Mid Dorset and North Poole) (LD)]

I will do my best to stick to that time, Madam Deputy Speaker.

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Wokingham (Clive Jones) for introducing this Bill on behalf of all those in our communities who are living with cancer, like my dad Ray Walls, who has stage 4 metastasized prostate cancer but is refusing to let his prognosis reduce his approach to life, grabbing each day, and tiring us all out with his energy, sporting prowess and positivity. He is truly standing up to cancer.

The Bill is also for those of us who are likely to be given the news that we have cancer. This impacts every family, and an annual report will ensure that it remains at the front of the minds of Ministers and civil servants, hold them to account to improve outcomes, and give hope to those who see improvements on the horizon but worry they will be denied access to treatments that buy them more time.

I want to talk to the issue of survival rates, as mentioned in clause 1(2), and the work of the national cancer audits. Although I of course strongly welcome the strategy, and the expanded national cancer audits, there appears to be a gap in the stated aims in relation to emerging treatments that are available elsewhere in the world but are not being fast-tracked here. My constituents Nigel, Lara and Sandra are just three of the many who have been denied access to emerging treatments, despite in some cases having been given them on a limited basis in ongoing trials. I am talking about situations in which young parents or much-loved mothers are willing to accept the risks to their own health or capacity to manage their symptoms to give them more time with their families, and to help to make progress on a widely used cure for second or third-degree cancers, or those that are so rare that there are no active UK trials.

Nigel has stage 4 pancreatic cancer, and has explained to me that when the second-line chemotherapy stops working, he will have no UK options left. He explained to me that this summer the Food and Drug Administration in America approved for use a drug called daraxonrasib, but the projected timeline for UK approval is 2028. He said:

“I will be dead by then.”

He explained that his children are now looking at how they can raise funds to send their dad to America, and asked me why the UK cannot create a rapid pathway, with waivers signed by people willing to take the risk. After all, their alternative is certain death.

Lara has an eye cancer that has led to tumours in her liver. Although the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recognises that there is a significant unmet need for patients, given that this is a typical presentation for her condition, patients can only access chemosat under special arrangements. Lara knows that our attempts to help her will probably come too late, but if we ensure that a plan must be published for progress across a range of rare cancers, research and survival rates, we can at least offer hope to those who come after her.

Sandra and her family face the same issue. Her cancer has spread to her kidneys. The treatment enfortumab, which has been available in the US for years, was finally approved for NHS use this summer. Imagine the family’s joy, having spent thousands of pounds a week to keep her on the treatment for many, many months. But her daughter told me:

“I am totally aghast that something finally available, which is potentially my mum’s last remaining option, is only available for first-line treatment despite having been successful on her third-line cancer.”

The family are now considering selling the family home to fund treatment. This is just ridiculous. I urge the Minister to look at bringing in measures so that we can reassure our residents and families that progress is being monitored, and so they can see, year on year, the goal getting closer.

May I send Nigel, Lara and Sandra my best wishes? I know that colleagues throughout the Chamber will have similar stories, and that the experience of my constituents is not unique. That is why it is so important to accept the need for a report every year that sets out metrics against the plan and details the investment in research. The Government have made a great start with the strategy, but without a mechanism to report on it annually, there is a risk of drift, and of a future Government deprioritising it or changing direction. I urge the Government to support the Bill.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

If only we had a pharmacist in the Chamber who could help with pronunciations.

[Lee Pitcher (Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme) (Lab)]

Head and heart—that is what it is all about. My head says I should not be saying what I am going to say in a second, but my heart tells me that I absolutely can. If I could swear in the Chamber today, I know what I would tell cancer to do. If I could signpost to cancer from the Chamber with my hands, I know what message I would like to send. However, I will say it in a way that works for this place.

Sometimes a guest will arrive uninvited. They will outstay their welcome and will not take the hint to leave. I say to that particular visitor, who turns up nowadays in almost one in two people’s lives: your departure is long overdue—we will find a way to kick you out, and I will make sure that the bloody locks are changed as well. In Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme, we would say, “Cancer, you can do one.” Any legislation that will facilitate or enable an improvement in waiting times, late diagnosis and survival rates, and that will address the gaps between our least and most deprived communities, has to be taken seriously, and I thank the hon. Member for Wokingham (Clive Jones) for championing the Bill.

When this private Member’s Bill, which includes screening, research and preventive measures to improve survival rates, was listed for today, that was a call for me to be here on a Friday, when I would normally be at home in my constituency. Today is especially important to me, because although this Bill focuses on governance, statistics and annual reporting, I want to speak about Peter Robinson—a person, not a number.

Peter, my best friend of 20 years, who I said goodbye to for the final time the week before last following his lengthy battle with bladder cancer, was a fiercely independent hero of mine with a thirst for life and a love of his family, especially his son Noah—and a weird love for S Club 7. If he was here now, he would talk to you, just as we did nearly every day over the last number of months. He would talk about regular surveillance and follow-ups, about the importance of symptoms and side-effect management, and about specialist nursing support for that particular cancer. He would talk about stoma care, lifestyle guidance around diet, help at home and work adjustments.

I note that today’s Bill contains measures on accountability, but I have also looked at the Government’s work on cancer. I have reviewed the national cancer plan, which includes a structured governance reporting and clinical data framework to monitor the various measures that we are trying to introduce. Moreover, it also covers all the things that I discussed with Peter on a regular basis: treatment and clinical care, skills and training, and personalised bespoke cancer plans. I will push to make sure that the national cancer plan is implemented in full. I will take on board all the things around accountability that are mentioned in the plan as we go forward, but the national cancer plan goes further than just governance. I need to make sure that what we do works for everybody, so that every single person who hears that horrible, horrible message—it happens once every 85 seconds in England—will go on to make many more cherished memories.

I say to Peter, my best Wakefield Trinity and Marvel-loving mate: I miss you, but every day I will fight in your memory to ensure that this Government do all that they must for everyone out there who has lost a Peter. I know that you will be with me all the way. Together, mate, we will reach for the stars.

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

Mr Pitcher, you have done a great service to your friend Peter.

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[Mary Kelly Foy]

I thank the hon. Member for that intervention. The cancer plan should go forward with whoever comes next. I am sure that if the hon. Gentleman is still in this place, he we will be able again to promote a private Member’s Bill to have that plan changed.

As the Member of Parliament for the City of Durham and someone who has personally experienced breast cancer, I cannot speak about cancer services without mentioning the deeply distressing breast surgery scandal at County Durham and Darlington NHS foundation trust. Independent reviews exposed serious failures in clinical oversight, governance and decision making. Women underwent unnecessary procedures, including mastectomies, while many others experienced avoidable harm. I have met a number of those women affected and worked closely with them. Their stories are heartbreaking, but their bravery is breathtaking.

I pay particular tribute to the campaigners in the Pink Justice Network, whose motto is, “Alone we survive but together we thrive!” Their courage and determination has ensured that failures cannot be swept under the carpet. I want to formally recognise Amelia, Jackie, Nadeen and Rachel, who are some of the most tenacious women I have ever met. Their experiences remind us that cancer care is not simply about waiting times and treatment targets; it is about safety, dignity, accountability and, above all, listening to patients. The lessons from County Durham must never be forgotten. The women affected deserve answers, accountability and certainty that no other patient will experience what they have endured.

We must also recognise the excellent support networks in Durham that have helped fill some of the gaps in diagnosis. In particular, I thank the Durham district prostate cancer group. Les and his team have organised prostate-specific antigen testing events, helping to identify men at risk of prostate cancer and ensuring that they are referred for further tests and support. They have literally saved lives, and I pay tribute to their work.

Ultimately, the true test of any cancer strategy is not how many reports it produces but whether more people survive cancer, receive treatment sooner and have confidence in the care they receive. For those reasons, while I wholeheartedly support the objectives of improving cancer outcomes and transparency, I do not believe that the Bill is necessary, given the substantial cancer plan and our existing reporting commitments. I will therefore oppose the Bill, but I will continue to work with the hon. Member and the all-party parliamentary group on cancer as well as local patients, Ministers and campaigners to secure safer services, earlier diagnosis, faster treatment and better outcomes for people in Durham and across the country.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

I call the shadow Secretary of State.