Backbench Business Committee
13 October 2026
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Committee House of Commons
00:03 - 00:38
Speaker 6
Order, order. Welcome to the meeting of the Backbench Business Committee where we will be considering applications from colleagues for debates in the main chamber and in Westminster Hall on a Tuesday morning and a Thursday afternoon. The first application we have is from Scott Arthur on the future of cancer research in the UK. And I declare my interest as being a strong supporter of Cancer Research UK, chairman of the All-Party Group on Fractions of Smoking and Health. Scott, do you want to present your case?
00:38 - 00:43
Speaker 1
This is, oh sorry, I should say, this is for a request for a debate in the chamber.
00:43 - 02:05
Speaker 3
Yeah, and thank you, Chair, and I'm sure, I mean, all of us have interest in this area, so you won't be alone in having, although you've got a formal conflict of interest, I'm sure we've all got an interest in this subject. So this is about looking at how we can progress faster and further cancer research in the UK. So fundamentally, it's about holding the government to account, but also thinking about not just the health benefits of work in this area, but also the economic benefits. So the UK is a world leader, has a world-leading record in cancer research, and breakthroughs have transformed prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancers in my lifetime. You know, I have to say I'm in my fifties, actually.
But there is a feeling that perhaps whilst progress was faster in the past, it's starting to slow a little. So we have the cancer plan, which was published earlier this year, but we've had a few changes in personnel, I think, in that department since then. So this is a chance just really to keep them on their toes, although we are, this is not DHSC, it is a chance to expose some light on the progress that has been made. So it's extremely timely. So there are several pressing issues, principally delays in setting up clinical trials that mean promising treatments are reaching patients more slowly than they should.
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