Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to research by Cardiff University’s Marie Curie Palliative Care Research Centre, Public attitudes to death and dying in the UK, published on 2 November 2021, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the finding in that report that over three quarters of people in the UK think that end of life care should be of equal priority to the NHS as care for people at any other stage of life; and what steps he is taking to ensure that palliative care services are available to all people a terminal illness who need them.

Although no specific assessment has been made, the National Health Service is required to commission appropriate palliative and end of life care services as part of a comprehensive health service. The Government tabled an amendment to the Health and Care Bill which will add palliative care to the list of services an integrated care board (ICB) must commission.

To support local commissioners, NHS England and NHS Improvement have developed seven palliative and end of life care strategic clinical networks, working with ICBs to develop and implement sustainable commissioning models for palliative and end of life care which respond to the needs of their local population.