Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether clinical commissioning groups have a statutory duty to provide respite care.

Respite care may be commissioned as either a social care or a health service. A clinical commissioning group has a duty under section 3 of the NHS Act 2006 to arrange for the provision of health services to the extent it considers necessary to meet the reasonable needs of the persons for whom it has responsibility, including services for the care of persons suffering from illness, and the after-care of persons who have suffered from illness, and this could include respite care.