Challenge

The Rare Cancers Bill – a Private Members Bill –  is seeking to incentivise research and innovation in the treatment of Rare Cancers in the UK. Private Members Bill’s often face difficulties progressing through the legislative parliamentary passage, with many failing to run their full course.

We worked with the Brain Tumour Charity, Brain Tumour Research, and Pancreatic Cancer UK as the main secretariat, and backed by a further 40 charities, to support their advocacy around the Bill as it moves through Parliament and support its legislative passage.

Strategy

We coordinated the work of multiple parliamentarians and charities to ensure the safe and swift passage of the Rare Cancers Bill. Through understanding the parliamentary procedure, we are advising on the PMB process and scenario planning for the legislative process.

To date, we have suggested and led on comms activations to promote the campaign. We’ve also delivered a briefing session to update and encourage partners from across industry and the third sector to support the Bill.​ On the parliamentary side, we are hosted a drop-in session at the House of Lords to brief Peers on the legislation, ahead of the Bill beginning its stages in the House.

Outcome

The Act passed through the Houses of Parliament unamended, with cross party and government support. We advised on the legislative process to ensure we were able to manage the opposition that bill faced. We hosted an industry briefing, with over 40 attendees from the pharmaceutical industry and the wider charitable network. We provided step-by-step support to charity leads with event planning, briefing on industry-relevant questions, and execution of the event. We also landed media coverage of the Act in House magazine alongside MP supporters from each party as well as a 10-minute clip on BBC Breakfast. We also ensured that our main charities got an invite to the exclusive No10 Downing Street Cancer Reception with the Prime Minister. Finally, we hosted a celebration of the Bill becoming law, bringing together senior MPs and industry and charity stakeholders.