Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 8 January 2025 to Question 21470 on Hospices: Charitable Donations, if he will provide financial support to hospices to directly cover declining charitable incomes.

Integrated care boards are responsible for the commissioning of palliative and end of life care services, to meet the needs of their local populations. Most hospices are charitable, independent organisations which receive some statutory funding for providing National Health Services.

Charitable hospices, as autonomous organisations, provide a range of services which go beyond that which statutory services are legally required to provide. Consequently, the funding arrangements reflect this.

In addition to the record hospice funding package I mentioned in my previous answer, I recently met the major palliative and end of life care and hospice stakeholders, and long-term sector sustainability, within the context of our 10-Year Health Plan, was discussed at length.