Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the report entitled Your life and CF, published in June 2023 by Cystic Fibrosis Trust, if he will make an assessment of the impact of hospital car park charges on the proportion of appointments missed by people with (a) cystic fibrosis and (b) other long term conditions.

We have no current plans to make a specific assessment. Through the Government’s commitment, all trusts that charge for hospital car parking now provide free parking to in-need groups, which include National Health Service staff working overnight, frequent outpatient attenders, disabled people and parents of children staying overnight in hospital. An assessment of in-need groups was undertaken during the development of this policy to capture as wide a range of patients as possible.

To minimise the risk of patients missing appointments owing to parking issues, NHS England advise trusts that they should consider installing ‘pay on exit’ or similar schemes so that drivers pay only for the time that they have used when they leave.