Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Trefnydd – in the Senedd at 2:59 pm on 10 February 2021.
I urge you to look at those essential services being provided by the sector, without which everyone in Government's job would be harder, but also our job in opposition would be harder, and everybody's lives would be a lot harder also. One of those, of course, is hospices. Although the Welsh Government initially allocated £6.3 million to the hospice emergency fund, this was less generous than equivalent funds in all other UK nations, as the evidence shows, and falls significantly short of the total allocated to the Welsh Government in consequential funding from the UK Government's support for hospices in England.
However, our hospice and community palliative care sector has continued to provide vital care and essential services throughout the pandemic. Up to £125 million was added to the original hospice emergency funding package for 2020-21 in England, but nothing more was added in Wales. Hospices in Wales are facing a combined shortfall of £4.2 million by March, but after I led the debate on palliative and end-of-life care here last week, the Welsh Government only announced £3 million extra to support them this financial year. Further, there was no indication in the Welsh Government's draft budget for 2021-22 of continued support for hospices to maintain their essential services, despite their estimated combined shortfall of £6.1 million during 2021-22. Where, therefore, is the rest of the extra funding received from the UK Government in consequence of increased funding for hospices in England this financial year to provide their essential services? And how will you respond to the urgent funding needs of hospices in Wales during the next financial year?