Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the geographical differences in the quality and provision of (1) specialist, and (2) generalist palliative care services across England.

As with the vast majority of NHS services, the funding and commissioning of palliative and end of life care is a local matter, over which individual National Health Service commissioners have responsibility. Local commissioners are best placed to understand the needs of local populations and commission services to meet those needs accordingly.

In October 2018 Public Health England, in partnership with NHS RightCare, published the first Atlas of variation for palliative and end of life care in England which can be used as a tool by commissioners to better understand the needs of their local population and reduce unwarranted variation. A copy of the Atlas has been placed in the Library due to its size.