Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many people applied for assistance through NHS Continuing Healthcare in each of the past two financial years.

Standard NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC) is a package of National Health Service funded ongoing care for adults with the highest levels of complex, intense or unpredictable needs, who have been assessed as having a primary health need. Fast Track CHC is for adults who have a primary health need resulting from a rapidly deteriorating condition, who are nearing the end of their life. This aims to put an appropriate care and support package in place as soon as possible. The following table shows the number of new referrals for both Standard and Fast Track CHC, and the percentage of those found eligible, for each quarter over the last two financial years in England:

Note: the number of new referrals does not include referrals for assessments of previously unassessed periods of care.