Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the forthcoming Palliative Care and End-of-Life Care Modern Service Framework will include provisions relating to the timeliness of diagnostic results and communication for patients with a limited prognosis.

The Government is developing a Modern Service Framework (MSF) for Palliative Care and End-of-Life Care, which remains on track for publication in Autumn 2026. On 4 June, we published an interim update in the form of a Written Ministerial Statement, which is available at the following link:

https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2026-06-04/hcws88

The MSF will be a clinically led, evidence-based framework to support sustained improvement in outcomes and experiences for patients and carers, and to reduce unwarranted variation in access, experience, and outcomes.

It would not be appropriate to pre-empt the final contents of the MSF. However, our goal is that every person who needs palliative care or care at the end of life receives high-quality, personalised support, shaped by what matters to them, their families, and carers. This includes promoting earlier identification of need, better coordinated care, and improved communication with patients and those important to them.