Ashley Dalton MP: speeches 2026

85 published records · newest first.

Speeches

5 Feb 2026 · National Cancer Plan · Hansard source
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This is a key issue. Some cancers are an awful lot easier to get at, and so they are a lot easier to diagnose sooner. We are looking at how we can roll out screening wherever appropriate and increase access to tests such as liquid biopsies, which I talked about in the statement, so that people can get their diagnoses sooner.
5 Feb 2026 · National Cancer Plan · Hansard source
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I can assure the hon. Member that we are working with our Welsh counterparts to make sure that there is equity of access to resources and to information, and we will continue to do so.
5 Feb 2026 · National Cancer Plan · Hansard source
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As I have set out, we have already invested £70 million in the new LINAC machines, and we are using AI to support oncologists to use those machines more effectively. Through the spending review, we are providing £15 billion in operational capital for local priorities. It is down to local ICBs and local trusts to identify what they need and what they want to purchase in their areas, but we are providing the support and guidance to help them do that.
5 Feb 2026 · National Cancer Plan · Hansard source
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I commend my hon. Friend on all the work he has done, particularly on the Rare Cancers Bill, which the Government are delighted to support. Not only does this plan have the first ever chapter on rare and less-survivable cancers, but we will be appointing the first ever clinical lead for rare cancers, whose job it will be to make sure that rare cancers are properly counted, registered and that we continue to deliver in this area. I would be delighted to visit the House of Hope next time I am in Edinburgh.
5 Feb 2026 · National Cancer Plan · Hansard source
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As I have already stated, the workforce is key. The workforce plan will be published in spring this year. As of November 2025, there are now 70% more staff in the key cancer professions of clinical oncology, gastroenterology, medical oncology, histopathology, clinical radiology, and diagnostic and therapeutic radiology than in 2010—we are starting to make inroads, although we know there is further to go. We will be driving that forward through this plan and the workforce plan, due in the spring.
5 Feb 2026 · National Cancer Plan · Hansard source
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Yes, I can confirm that, but it is not always about throwing extra money at things. It is about using the resources that we have in a better, more targeted way to be more impactful. I have worked with Cancer Research UK from day one of developing this plan and it has run right the way through it. We continue to work with the organisation as we move forward to make the plan a reality.
5 Feb 2026 · National Cancer Plan · Hansard source
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I thank my hon. Friend for his question, for his expertise and for all that he has shared from his experience to help us develop this plan. I note how important specialist nurses are, but we are also doing more to help people navigate the NHS. I know exactly what it is like; I think I have in my Filofax—I am that retro!—about 38 email addresses and phone numbers of the various people I have to contact in order to project manage my treatment. We are going further and ensuring that the NHS app can handle all that information. Cancer patients will have the ability in their hands, or in their pockets, to manage scans, appointments and test results directly through the NHS app. I am delighted to say that my hon. Friend the Minister for Technology, Innovation and Life Sciences is already looking at the issues that my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield South East (Mr Betts) raises around blood products and donations, and is working with the Anthony Nolan trust on those. I will be more than happy to work with my hon. Friend further on those issues.
5 Feb 2026 · National Cancer Plan · Hansard source
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Yes, I can confirm that we will continue to work with cancer charities. I am particularly delighted with the work we have done with Young Lives vs Cancer and other young people’s cancer charities, which have brought amazing insight and basically written the chapter on children and young people with cancer with the team. I would be delighted to continue that work.
5 Feb 2026 · National Cancer Plan · Hansard source
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I understand that the right hon. Lady has already met the Minister for health innovation, my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow South West (Dr Ahmed), to discuss these issues, and that he will continue to work with her on them and to explore them further.
5 Feb 2026 · National Cancer Plan · Hansard source
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I commend my hon. Friend for the campaigning that he has done in his brother’s name in the area of rare and less survivable cancers, including brain tumours. We are putting patients at the centre of this plan, which says not only that every patient will have a personalised cancer treatment plan, but that patients will be at the heart of deciding those plans. Alongside their clinicians, they will have a role to play in deciding what treatment works for them. I know personally what that means. When I got my diagnosis, the immediate suggestion was that I would have intravenous chemotherapy. I was able to engage with my oncologist and say, “I’m not sure that that works for my lifestyle. I want to be able to live my life.” We were able to work together to find the right treatment that fits in with my lifestyle, and which allows me to come to work and do this job. That is what we want for every single cancer patient in this country. Their treatment should be about not just keeping them alive, but extending and maintaining their quality of life.
5 Feb 2026 · National Cancer Plan · Hansard source
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Harnessing technology right across the cancer landscape is what this plan is about. Where it is appropriate for less invasive treatments to be used, we are looking to explore how we can roll them out across the country, regardless of postcodes. Lots more people are surviving cancer with treatment, but what is important is that the side effects of invasive cancer treatment can be significant—I know: I have several of them—so, where possible, we want to use innovative, less invasive treatments so that people can live longer, more fruitful and less painful lives.
5 Feb 2026 · National Cancer Plan · Hansard source
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Yes, we are aware of that. We are looking at the existing metrics and at what we can do to improve them to ensure that they are actually making a difference to people’s outcomes.
5 Feb 2026 · National Cancer Plan · Hansard source
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As my hon. Friend knows—I do not need to tell him this—brain tumours, leukaemia and other less stageable cancers cannot be assessed in the usual way, so we need different measures to understand how early they are being caught. That is why this plan commits to the regular publication of data on emergency cancer diagnoses as a key indicator, exposing where these cancers are picked up too late so that we can drive earlier detection and focus attention where it is most urgently needed.
5 Feb 2026 · National Cancer Plan · Hansard source
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I thank my hon. Friend for his question. Lung cancer has impacted on my family as well. Yes, we will be rolling out lung cancer screening nationwide by 2030, because we know that it has a huge impact on outcomes. I have seen how amazing the AI tools are at identifying discrepancies in lung CT scans. I found out that I had an untapped talent, as I was quite good at identifying those discrepancies as well. AI means that we can catch lung cancers sooner. They are often not caught until they are at stage 3 or 4. Using AI means that we can get them at stage 1 or 2, we can treat people early and we can save lives.
5 Feb 2026 · National Cancer Plan · Hansard source
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The trust to which the right hon. Gentleman refers is the trust where I had my primary cancer treatment, so I am acutely aware of the challenges. We have set a really clear and simple ambition: to get cancer patients the timely care they need, and to meet all waiting time standards by the end of this Parliament. That means that by March 2029, 80% of patients will get a diagnosis or the all-clear within 28 days, and 85% of patients will start their treatment within 62 days of referral. Some people have asked me why the figure is not 100%. It is not possible to make it 100%, because not everybody’s cancer is simple or easy to identify, and sometimes it takes longer. We want to ensure that the only reason for delays beyond 62 days is the complexity or specifics of someone’s cancer, not the inability of a trust to meet the targets. We are going to cut waiting times by giving trusts and cancer alliances detailed practical information and granular data on individual cancer types so that we can highlight real-time pathway insights through a federated data platform, and by streamlining the cancer metrics so that we can shine a light on unwarranted variation in care. We are providing information and best practice, thereby taking the best of the NHS to the rest of the NHS. We are linking up professionals and clinicians across the UK, so that they can share their best practice. Trusts can help and support each other to reach the targets.
5 Feb 2026 · National Cancer Plan · Hansard source
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I offer the hon. Member my deepest condolences on the news that she has shared with the House. I share her concern that we have to reach others. Some less survivable cancers can be tackled if they are caught early, and we have specifically committed in the plan to reducing significantly the number of rare and less survivable cancers that are diagnosed in an emergency setting, which she described as happening to her family. Primary care is where most people first raise concerns. GPs rarely see rare cancers, because they are rare, so we are rolling out AI-driven decision support tools to help GPs think cancer sooner, think cancer earlier and make decisions about referral more quickly.
5 Feb 2026 · National Cancer Plan · Hansard source
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We are learning from comparable countries. By looking at what they have achieved, we have begun to put together this plan. We want to make Britain the place to come to for clinical trials of new innovative treatments. We are looking not only to learn from other countries about the treatments they already offer, but to have our own home-grown new treatments and innovations through our clinical trials accelerator in the UK.
5 Feb 2026 · National Cancer Plan · Hansard source
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I thank my hon. Friend for his question and offer my condolences on the loss of his Auntie Hillary. Yes, this plan is designed to ensure that an extra 320,000 people at the end of the course of the plan will have had their lives saved or be living well with cancer after their five-year diagnosis. We want to make sure that everybody gets that opportunity, regardless of where they live.
5 Feb 2026 · National Cancer Plan · Hansard source
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Ministers quite like making promises from the Dispatch Box on behalf of our Front-Bench colleagues, but in this case I think I will just gently encourage my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State to join the hon. Member, if he is able to do so—I look forward to seeing the photographs. We are exploring opportunities for breast cancer screening. There are difficulties in early screening because of dense breast tissue, but we are expanding screening where it provides support. In particular on breast screening, we are monitoring the emerging evidence from BRAID—breast screening risk adaptive imaging for density—trials, which target programmes at women with greater risk. We are also considering the findings from the £11 million EDITH—early detection using information technology in health—trial, testing how cutting-edge tools can be used to catch breast cancer cases earlier, particularly in younger women, like me, for whom a mammogram was not successful because of dense breast tissue.
5 Feb 2026 · National Cancer Plan · Hansard source
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Through the spending review, providers have been allocated £15 billion in operational capital for local priorities and £5 billion to support the return to constitutional standards on radiotherapy. Responsibility for purchasing new machines sits at local level, and we expect local systems to continue to invest in new machines to meet the ambitious targets and to meet their local needs.
13 Jan 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source
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Local authorities must assess disabled children’s social care needs and provide respite care, including funding short breaks where appropriate. We are currently developing an all-age palliative care and end-of-life care modern service framework, and will consider the issue of emotional and practical support, including for parents who are carers, as part of that work. My hon. Friend the Minister for Care chairs a cross-Government meeting with Ministers from the Departments for Work and Pensions, for Business and Trade and for Education, to consider how we can provide care as we improve recognition and support. I would be happy to meet my hon. Friend and the founder of Harry’s Pals.
13 Jan 2026 · Brain Cancer Treatment: Hartlepool · Hansard source
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As my hon. Friend rightly points out, I was privileged to answer for the Government in the Westminster Hall debate last week on this very issue, and I vividly remember Trevor’s story. Last week, I did commit to exploring current arrangements for tissue freezing options and the options for change, and I recommit to doing that today. I would be more than happy to meet him and his constituent to discuss this further.
13 Jan 2026 · Brain Cancer Treatment: Hartlepool · Hansard source
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As previously stated, we are boosting investment to unlock new treatments and improve outcomes for brain cancer patients, including investing in cutting-edge equipment to improve access to samples for research. Each pathology service in England maintains its own standard procedures for tissue freezing, which inform local capabilities and practices, and we are investing in England’s pathology networks to deliver productivity and transformation improvements.
13 Jan 2026 · ADHD Services · Hansard source
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As it is the ICB shared by my constituency, I am equally concerned. This will be explored as part of the review and I am more than happy to ask the Minister responsible to contact the hon. Gentleman further on how we can take that forward.
13 Jan 2026 · ADHD Services · Hansard source
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Through the medium-term planning framework, which we published in October 2025, we set out those expectations. We will continue to work with trusts to develop them to make sure that people with ADHD, or suspected ADHD, get the support they need. I am more than happy to meet the APPG to discuss these matters further.

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