Thank you, and I apologise for keeping you waiting. I am pleased to come before the Committee, having been undertaking work since October 2020 with Members of the House of Lords to consider palliative care and its future. Obviously, we have been debating assisted dying this year, and palliative care has come to the fore throughout that debate, particularly the paucity and inequality of provision. We undertook a piece of work to drill down into the evidence on what is happening across palliative care today, and how it could be improved. The Palliative Care Commission was established, and many esteemed colleagues—leaders in the field nationally and internationally—were part of the commission, drawing together the evidence on how we can reformulate palliative care to deliver for the future. Within that, we learned about the 100,000 people who do not receive any form of palliative care today, which is often a reason why so many people across our country experience a poor death. We also learned about specialist palliative care—the interventions that can alleviate pain, whether physical, psychological, spiritual or social. The experience out there could be brought into the centre of the health service, but it is just not readily available. We particularly drew our attention to things like neuromodulation—which most people have not heard of, but which could make a real difference to people—and, indeed, nerve blocks. We heard in the debate about pain that is really difficult to manage, yet clinicians said to us, “Oh, we can treat that.” Getting on top of pain is really important, as are more commonly used techniques like palliative radiation. We also picked up that the workforce needs significant investment, both in training and in the number of people, particularly around psychological services and making the right interventions. We know it is very difficult to determine a prognosis for someone with an end-of-life diagnosis. Yet if early interventions can be made, people can be supported as they move through a period of depression into a period of being able to manage and live with their condition—and ultimately die with the choices they need around them. That is so important in the context of the debates we are having. Sixty-three Members of Parliament, from different parties, have supported my application, showing that there is real interest across the House, and I have since had many conversations. The Palliative Care Commission has its part 1 and part 2 reports on its website, but we have also undertaken work looking at funding and demonstrating how a remodelled service would actually save the Exchequer money, as opposed to spending money. I think it is really important to explore that. If you make the right interventions, people are not in the most expensive part of the health service and are able to be palliated at home. I believe a debate about instituting this service would be timely in the light of the 10-year NHS plan that has just been published. We very much want a debate to influence Ministers by saying that this is a great opportunity to have early intervention and to make sure that people can hold on to the hope of living, as opposed to focusing on dying.

Yes, we published it last month, and it is available. The report has three parts, and we have published part 1, on a new model, and part 2, on the evidence. We then have the funding piece, and we are now writing national service guidance, which will be available after the summer.

Thank you very much.