Oral question asked in the House of Commons, by Mark Todd (Labour). It was answered on Tuesday, 30 March 2010 on behalf of the Department of Health.

End-of-life Care Strategy

Question: The all-party group on motor neurone disease conducted an inquiry into end-of-life care that revealed that many primary care trusts have either not been fully utilising the money set aside or have not used it at all for this purpose and have instead taken it entirely for other purposes. Is that also the early evidence from the Minister's inquiries?

Answer: First, may I congratulate my hon. Friend, who has been a long-standing champion in the House for people with motor neurone disease? We are monitoring primary care trusts' expenditure of the £286 million for the reason he suggested. The results of that analysis will be shared with the Public Accounts Committee, included in the end-of-life care strategy second annual report, and published on the Department's website. We are making good progress, but we need to make sure that work is happening on the ground.

Secondary information