Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to reduce emergency hospital admissions involving people who are in the last 12 months of life.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Early identification of someone who has palliative and end of life care needs is vital. There are tools to aid clinicians in identifying those approaching the end of life, for example the Supportive and Palliative Care Indicators Tool and the EARLY toolkit. Further information on the Supportive and Palliative Care Indicators Tool and the EARLY toolkit is available, respectively, at the following two links:

https://www.spict.org.uk/the-spict/

https://www.england.nhs.uk/north-west/north-west-coast-strategic-clinical-networks/our-networks/palliative-and-end-of-life-care/for-professionals/early-toolkit-for-primary-care/

NHS England has published universal principles for advanced care planning (ACP). These principles facilitate a consistent national approach to ACP in England. Further information on the universal principles for ACP is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/universal-principles-for-advance-care-planning/

The Government is developing a Palliative Care and End of Life Care Modern Service Framework for England. I refer the Hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement HCWS1087, which I gave to the House on 24 November 2025.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the number of deaths in hospital.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Early identification of someone who has palliative and end of life care needs is vital. There are tools to aid clinicians in identifying those approaching the end of life, for example the Supportive and Palliative Care Indicators Tool and the EARLY toolkit. Further information on the Supportive and Palliative Care Indicators Tool and the EARLY toolkit is available, respectively, at the following two links:

https://www.spict.org.uk/the-spict/

https://www.england.nhs.uk/north-west/north-west-coast-strategic-clinical-networks/our-networks/palliative-and-end-of-life-care/for-professionals/early-toolkit-for-primary-care/

NHS England has published universal principles for advanced care planning (ACP). These principles facilitate a consistent national approach to ACP in England. Further information on the universal principles for ACP is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/universal-principles-for-advance-care-planning/

The Government is developing a Palliative Care and End of Life Care Modern Service Framework for England. I refer the Hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement HCWS1087, which I gave to the House on 24 November 2025.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to increase the early identification of palliative care needs.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Early identification of someone who has palliative and end of life care needs is vital. There are tools to aid clinicians in identifying those approaching the end of life, for example the Supportive and Palliative Care Indicators Tool and the EARLY toolkit. Further information on the Supportive and Palliative Care Indicators Tool and the EARLY toolkit is available, respectively, at the following two links:

https://www.spict.org.uk/the-spict/

https://www.england.nhs.uk/north-west/north-west-coast-strategic-clinical-networks/our-networks/palliative-and-end-of-life-care/for-professionals/early-toolkit-for-primary-care/

NHS England has published universal principles for advanced care planning (ACP). These principles facilitate a consistent national approach to ACP in England. Further information on the universal principles for ACP is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/universal-principles-for-advance-care-planning/

The Government is developing a Palliative Care and End of Life Care Modern Service Framework for England. I refer the Hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement HCWS1087, which I gave to the House on 24 November 2025.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the palliative care workforce is able to cope with increases in demand for end of life care.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government is committed to publishing a 10 Year Workforce Plan to set out action to create a workforce ready to deliver the transformed service set out in the 10-Year Health Plan.  The 10 Year Workforce Plan will ensure the National Health Service has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients, when they need it, including in palliative care and end of life care.

The Government is developing a Palliative Care and End of Life Care Modern Service Framework for England. I refer the Hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement HCWS1087, which I gave to the House on 24 November 2025.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to reduce variation in the approaches of commissioners in meeting the local population's needs for palliative and end of life care services.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning palliative care services to meet the reasonable needs of their population. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications.

This further clarified in the recently published Strategic Commissioning Framework and Medium Term Planning Guidance, which makes clear the expectation that ICBs should understand current and projected service utilisation and costs, creating an overall plan to more effectively meet these needs through neighbourhood health.

The Government is developing a Palliative Care and End of Life Care Modern Service Framework for England. I refer the Hon. Members to the Written Ministerial Statement HCWS1087, which I gave to the House on 24 November 2025.

NHS England has developed a palliative and end of life care dashboard, which brings together all relevant local data in one place. The dashboard helps commissioners understand the palliative and end of life care needs of their local population, enabling ICBs to put plans in place to address and track the improvement of health inequalities, and ensure that funding is distributed fairly, based on prevalence.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to reduce levels of local variation in access to and quality of palliative and end of life care.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning palliative care services to meet the reasonable needs of their population. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications.

This further clarified in the recently published Strategic Commissioning Framework and Medium Term Planning Guidance, which makes clear the expectation that ICBs should understand current and projected service utilisation and costs, creating an overall plan to more effectively meet these needs through neighbourhood health.

The Government is developing a Palliative Care and End of Life Care Modern Service Framework for England. I refer the Hon. Members to the Written Ministerial Statement HCWS1087, which I gave to the House on 24 November 2025.

NHS England has developed a palliative and end of life care dashboard, which brings together all relevant local data in one place. The dashboard helps commissioners understand the palliative and end of life care needs of their local population, enabling ICBs to put plans in place to address and track the improvement of health inequalities, and ensure that funding is distributed fairly, based on prevalence.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of the use of contract-based tenures in older people's housing-with-care.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 87630 on 11 November 2025.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of the additional funding for the NHS announced on 11 June 2025 will be allocated to NHS dentistry.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

NHS England has now published the Medium Term Planning Framework and allocations for 2026/27 to 2027/28. Further information on the Medium Term Planning Framework and the allocations is available, respectively, at the following two links:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/medium-term-planning-framework-delivering-change-together-2026-27-to-2028-29/

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/allocation-of-resources-2026-27-to-2027-28/

National Health Service organisations are now in the process of developing their operational plans that will detail how they will meet the standards set out in the Medium-Term Planning Framework.

A separate schedule will be issued setting out the ringfence for dental services, including 2026/27 to 2028/29 integrated care board pharmacy optometry and dental allocations.

Newborn bloodspot screening for spinal muscular atrophy

Thanking postal workers

Lisa Petrie's response to her son's fatal stabbing

Found: following Members made oral representations: • Bayo Alaba: Cultural heritage of market towns • Chris Bloore

Found: Current membership Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour; Gower) (Chair) Dan Aldridge (Labour; Weston-super-Mare) Chris Bloore