Edinburgh MPs Scott Arthur and Tracy Gilbert put forward their proposals for new legislation

Edinburgh South West Labour MP Scott Arthur came sixth in the Westminster ballot giving backbenchers the chance to introduce legislation of their choice. And he plans to use the opportunity to propose incentives for pharmaceutical companies to develop new treatments for rarer cancers like gioblastoma, the the of brain tumour his father-in-law died of.

Tracy Gilbert, Labour MP for Edinburgh North and Leith, was 12th in the ballot and plans to bring forward a Bill to make it easier for people to apply for postal and proxy votes.

Scott Arthur and Tracy Gilbert have both lodged their proposed new laws in the Commons | collage

The higher up the ballot they came, the more chance there is that MPs could see their proposal fully debated and make it into legislation.

Dr Arthur said: "I've been lucky enough, because I'm in the top seven, to have time set aside for me, probably in March of next year.

“The focus of my private member's bill is going to be incentivising pharmaceutical companies to bring forward treatments for rarer cancers. A big driver for this is my father-in-law, who died due to a brain tumour type called gioblastoma, which has 3,200 diagnoses per year in the UK.

"What I didn't know until I met another MP called Siobhain McDonagh, whose sister also died of the condition, is that the treatment for it hasn't changed for decades.  And life expectancy at diagnosis for most people is nine months - so it's heartbreaking to see there has been so little progress in this area.

"What I want to do is bring forward an incentive for pharmaceutical companies to do more in the coming years.

"Right now the thinking is what we'll do is when a cancer treatment generally comes forward for approval as a medicine, we'll provide incentives for the company to trial that same cancer treatment on rare cancer types. 

“They'll get a slight extension to their patent, which means they can make a little bit more money for a little bit longer, but then that money can be reinvested in trying to provide treatment.”

Dr Arthur said the term ‘rare cancer’ could be a bit misleading. “It’s defined in the UK as six diagnoses per 100,000 people.  But 24 per cent of cancer diagnoses are related to rare cancers, so together they are far from rare.

“If this succeeds, it's not going to change things overnight for people facing the condition, but I do hope there's a real chance that it will save lives both from gioblastoma and hopefully other rare cancer types.”

He said he was lucky to have such a great opportunity so early in his parliamentary career. “I'm just through the door and I’ve got an opportunity which so many MPs have waited decades for. I feel so lucky and also privileged and humbled, particluarly getting a chance to link it to the death of my father-in-law because he's still much missed by our family.”

Ms Gilbert said her proposed Bill would make it easier for voters in Scotland and Wales to register for a postal or proxy vote in all elections by allowing them to apply online.

“They can apply on line for Westminster elections but not for Scottish Parliament or local government elections - you have to fill in an application form at the moment, which is quite burdensome on the voter. This would allow them to do it electronically.

“With voter ID and so on, it's so much easier for people to have a postal vote, so more and more people are going for that option, and anything that takes away the form-filling part of it is going to be helpful for people.”

Although Ms Gilbert won’t have time reserved for her Bill, she still hopes it will still get debated. She said: “We're quite hopeful.  I'm number 12, so it just depends how much the bills in front of me are debated and how quickly those go through.”