Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help tackle cases of neglect in hospices.

Where anyone alleges poor care, neglect or abuse, we expect those providing the service, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and other appropriate authorities to take swift action.

CQC is developing a new single assessment framework to be implemented by the end of the calendar year, which will inform its judgements about quality. As part of this, CQC will continue to place importance on safeguarding during its assessments and will assess whether people who use services are able to live in safety, free from bullying, harassment, abuse, discrimination, avoidable harm and neglect.

Where CQC identifies that a hospice is in breach of a regulation following an inspection, it will use its enforcement powers.