Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment has he made of the potential merits for a patient's care journey of increasing statutory funding for hospices.

Palliative and end of life care is commissioned locally by integrated care boards in response to the needs of their local population. Any assessment of patients’ care journeys, including whether to increase funding made available to palliative and end of life care providers, such as hospices, would therefore be made at a local level.