Written question asked by Patrick Hall (Labour) on Tuesday, 6 December 2005, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 8 December 2005. It was answered by Liam Byrne (Labour) on Thursday, 15 December 2005 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Palliative Care

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what public funding for palliative care was allocated for 2005–06; and what the total annual funding will be when the Government have met the Labour manifesto commitment to double spending on palliative care;

Answer: Primary care trusts are responsible within the national health service for commissioning and funding services for their resident populations, including palliative care. This would include meeting any costs associated with full cost recovery, recommended in the HM Treasury's ““Cross Cutting Review on the Role of the Voluntary Sector in Service Delivery”” or the implementation of Payment by Results. The Department does not routinely collect data on the amount of funding allocated locally for palliative care services, although, as pledged in the NHS Cancer Plan 2000, an additional £50 million per annum was allocated to primary care trusts in 2005–06 for specialist palliative care.The details of delivering our manifesto commitment are being discussed with a range of key stakeholders. Alongside this, the views of the public, service users and staff on end of life care was one of the issues covered in the ““Your Health, Your Care, Your Say”” consultation. We will take account of what people have said in this consultation in the way we discharge our manifesto commitment.

Secondary information