Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing additional support to hospices for energy costs further to that provided through the Energy Bill Discount Scheme after March 2023.

As palliative and end of life care, including hospice care, is commissioned locally by integrated care boards (ICBs) in response to the needs of their local population, any assessment of further financial support should be made at a local level.

At a national level, NHS England have released £1.5 billion additional funding to ICBs to provide support for inflation, with ICBs deciding how best to distribute this funding according to local need. This is in addition to the support provided by Government through the Energy Bill Relief Scheme and the new Energy Bill Discount Scheme.