Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data his Department holds on the average time taken by Integrated Care Boards to complete NHS Continuing Healthcare eligibility assessments, including for patients receiving end-of-life care.

NHS England publishes data on NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC) and NHS-funded Nursing Care (FNC) on a quarterly basis. This includes the number and proportion of CHC referrals and eligibility decisions made for both the Standard and Fast Track CHC referral pathway. Fast Track CHC is provided for those individuals with a rapidly deteriorating condition, which may be entering a terminal phase. The data includes the number and proportion of referrals and eligibility decisions for Standard CHC made within 28 days of referral. It does not include average time taken for integrated care boards to complete CHC assessments. The latest published CHC and FNC data is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/nhs-chc-fnc/