Member

Amendment 7 attempts to tie down when clinical trials will be able to be implemented. It relates to the research, and the requirement on the Secretary of State to ensure the appointment of a person to be known as the national speciality lead for rare cancers, but there is no timescale for that to be done, so I am proposing six months. There is a wider issue, though. There is no reason why the appointment could not be made now. There is no reason why it could not have been made when the Bill was first introduced. It is quite clear from the impact assessment that the speciality lead will be appointed by a quango, essentially, which already has specialty leads for a whole lot of other issues. Why can we not just appoint this person now? It is said that the cost of the appointment will be a mere £16,000.