Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much his Department has spent on palliative care in each financial year since 2020–21; and how much funding has been budgeted for palliative care in (a) 2026-2027, (b) 2027-2028 and (c) 2028-2029 financial year.

Palliative care and end-of-life care services are commissioned locally by integrated care boards (ICBs) and spend is not measured or held centrally in a way that allows a comprehensive breakdown by each financial year. Additionally, palliative care and end-of-life care are broad, holistic approaches provided through a range of professionals and providers, both universal and specialist, across National Health Service, social care, and voluntary sector organisations. Therefore, it is difficult to measure the total provision or spend at either a national or local level as relevant consultations and tasks are not always coded as palliative care or end-of-life care.

Recently published research from the National Institute for Health and Care Research Policy Research Unit, however, estimates that total palliative care and end‑of‑life care expenditure in England is approximately £24,000 per person for 2024. This does not include social care and informal costs, such as unpaid care provided by family members.

Whilst the majority of palliative care and end-of-life care is provided by NHS staff and services, we recognise the vital part that voluntary sector organisations, including hospices, also play in providing support to people at the end of life and their loved ones. We have supported the hospice sector with a £125 million capital funding boost for adult and children’s hospices to ensure they have the best physical environment for care for 2024/25 and 2025/26.

We have also provided £26 million of revenue funding to support children and young people’s hospices for 2025/26, and are providing approximately £80 million of further funding over the three financial years, 2026/27 to 2028/29, equating to approximately £26 million per year, adjusted for inflation.