The Bishop of St Albans asked a question on the funding of hospices on 19th November 2024, following a government statement on changes to National Insurance Contributions and their effects on healthcare:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans: Can the noble Baroness help us understand the huge impact this is having on the hospice movement, which is an extraordinary sector? We get an incredible service from it but, ironically, while we are having a national debate on assisted dying—some of us prefer to call it assisted suicide—this will make it even more difficult to provide this much-valued service. Is there not a case to be made for special support for those independent hospices which have to raise massive amounts of money from charitable sources, so that we are not penalising them?
Baroness Merron (Lab, DHSC): As the right reverend Prelate is very aware, most hospices are indeed charitable. They are independent organisations that receive some statutory funding for providing NHS services. As we discussed in a recent debate in your Lordships’ House, the amount of funding that charitable hospices receive varies by integrated care board area, and that will depend in part on population need and the breadth and range of palliative care and end-of-life care provision within the ICB footprint. With NHS funding being provided on a tariff basis, as is usual every year, there is NHS planning guidance, a local government finance settlement and consultations with independent providers. That will happen this year as it has every single year under every previous Government.
The Church of England in Parliament 
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