Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to tackle the (a) palliative, (b) end of life care and (c) other medical needs of older prisoners.

As a signatory to the National Partnership Agreement for Health and Social Care for people in contact with the criminal justice system, the Department is committed to working with the Ministry of Justice, HM Prison and Probation Service, NHS England, and the UK Health Security Agency to ensure that safe, legal, decent, and effective care that improves health outcomes and reduces health inequalities is provided for all prisoners, including those who are elderly.

NHS England is responsible for providing a full range of healthcare services to meet the needs of the prison population. Every prison will have a health needs assessment undertaken on a regular basis which is then used to locally determine the health needs and requirements of that prison’s population. This includes supporting elderly prisoners in their palliative care, end of life care, and other health needs such as dementia care. Local authorities also have a duty to support elderly prisoners with their social care needs.

The Dying Well in Custody Charter and supporting self-assessment framework describes a set of national standards for local adoption and provides a tool for a local multi-disciplinary approach to providing agreed standards of palliative and end of life care to people in prison. The charter is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/dying-well-in-custody-charter/#:~:text=It%20is%20the%20last%20thing,of%20their%20place%20of%20death