Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to support hospices during the covid-19 outbreak.

The Department regularly assesses the effect of the COVID-19 outbreak on the hospice sector, and through NHS England and NHS Improvement, are engaged in regular discussions with key stakeholders in the hospice sector regarding the challenges they face. A range of steps have been taken to support them.

On 8 April 2020, the Chancellor announced funding of up to £200 million for hospices over the next three months as part of the £750 funding package for the voluntary and charitable sector. This funding will support them to increase capacity of NHS services and provide stability as we manage our response to COVID-19.

In addition, to ensure that hospices continue to benefit from fundraising activities while social distancing measures remain in place, they are eligible for a range of measures which apply to charities such as having the option to defer their VAT bills to the end of June, paying no business rates for their shops next year and applying for a Business Interruption Loan. Many charity shops are already eligible for 80% charitable rate relief and will benefit from the new enhanced retail rate relief at 100%.