Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the proposed Modern Service Frameworks for palliative and end of life care will mandate Integrated Care Boards to commission hospice services in an equitable way.

The Government is developing a Palliative Care and End of Life Care Modern Service Framework (MSF) for England. The MSF will drive improvements in the services that patients and their families receive at the end of life and enable integrated care boards (ICBs) to address challenges in access, quality and sustainability through the delivery of high-quality, personalised care. This will be aligned with the ambitions set out in the recently published 10-Year Health Plan.

We will consider contracting and commissioning arrangements as part of our MSF. We recognise that there is currently a mix of contracting models in the hospice sector. Equity is at the heart of this government’s approach to strategic commissioning and, by supporting ICBs to commission more strategically, we can move away from grant and block contract models. In the long term, this will aid sustainability and help hospices’ ability to plan ahead.

It would not be right to pre-empt exactly what will be in the final MSF at this time, as we develop it with our palliative care and end of life stakeholders.

I refer the Hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement HCWS1087 I gave to the House on 24 November 2025.