Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans his Department has to promote funding and research into treatments for diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma.

The Government agrees that an increase in the level of research into brain tumours is crucial in order to achieve better outcomes for patients and their families. This year we set up a Department of Health Task and Finish Working Group on Brain Tumour Research bringing together clinicians, charities and officials to discuss how, working together with research funding partners, we can address the need to increase the level and impact of research into brain tumours, including diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma. The group first met in October and the Government anticipates that it will complete its tasks by September 2017. I will be co-chairing the next meeting in January with the Department’s chief scientific adviser, Professor Chris Whitty, to make sure that we make the progress needed.

In September, the Government announced the largest ever investment into health research infrastructure - £816 million over five years from April 2017 for 20 National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centres in England. We would expect some of this investment to support brain tumour research.