Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how he plans to deliver the MSF on Palliative Care.

The Government is developing a Palliative Care and End of Life Care Modern Service Framework (MSF) for England. We will publish an interim update in spring 2026, ahead of the full MSF in Autumn 2026.

The MSF will drive improvements in the services that patients and their families receive at the end of life and enable integrated care boards to address challenges in access, quality and sustainability through the delivery of high-quality, personalised care. This will be aligned with the ambitions set out in the last year’s 10-Year Health Plan. Through our MSF, we will closely monitor the shift towards the strategic commissioning of palliative care and end-of-life care services to ensure that services reduce variation in access and quality.

The MSF will put in place a clear and effective mechanism to deliver a fundamental improvement to the care provided. This will enable adoption of evidence-based interventions that are proven to make a difference to patients and their families. Examples include earlier identification of need, care delivered closer to home by integrated generalist and specialist teams, and strengthened out-of-hours community health support, including dedicated telephone advice.