Several MPs, including former civil society minister Stuart Andrew, have signed a petition calling on the government to allocate the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) annual fines to UK hospices.
Box Power, a not-for-profit energy consultancy, has started the petition to call on the government to allocate the first £100m of FCA’s annual fines to hospices and has so far received over 36,000 signatures.
The FCA funding, the petition says, would help to address a “£70m black hole” facing the hospice sector.
According to its website, the FCA has collected £98m from firms and individuals in 2024 so far, most of which currently goes to the Treasury.
£70m black hole
Corin Dalby, who started the petition and is the chief executive of Box Power, told Civil Society that the hospice sector is “not fully funded and there’s always a gap”.
He said: “It’s the one area where they’re struggling and they need the money. It’s the one area where not only it is vulnerable but is so needed.”
Box Power’s petition reads: “It is heartbreaking to see many who have invested time and fundraising to keep hospices open struggle to cover the basic operating costs.
“Some have tirelessly fundraised to build precious rooms left empty because they cannot fund them due to cost constraints, placing an added burden on donations.
“The hospice sector already faces a £70m black hole and so as there are hundreds of millions in annual FCA fines which go into the government pot and generally as a result of an injustice to the UK people who may benefit from the services offered by hospices, there is no better way to complete the circle by allocating these funds to the UK hospice sector.”
Earlier this year in April, Hospice UK, the umbrella body for the sector, reported that its member charities faced a collective deficit of £77m in the financial year 2023-24.
A spokesperson for Hospice UK, which has not signed the petition, said: "Hospices are in need of both short-term support and, most importantly, long-term reform to the way they are funded to ensure they receive fair and predictable payment from the NHS for the statutory services they provide."
Support from MPs
The petition has received over 36,000 signatures out of the targeted 50,000 signatures as of 15 October, including the signatories of 30 hospices and eight cross-party MPs.
The MPs who have signed the petition alongside Andrew are fellow Conservative MPs Christopher Chope and Desmond Swayne, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, Labour MPs Simon Ophor and Jacob Collier, Liberal Democrat MP John Milne, and independent MP Ayoub Khan.
“I worked in hospices for 16 years, so I am well aware of the challenges the sector faces and always happy to lend my support to the cause,” Andrew stated in a statement sent to Dalby.
Dalby initially hoped that the petition would get 100,000 signatures so that it would be considered for debate in parliament.
But now that the petition has the signatures of multiple MPs, he hopes this will hasten the process.
“Now we’ve had so much momentum, and we’ve had multiple MPs from across all the different parties already adding their name of support, I’m actually hoping I can just find some MPs who will present this in parliament,” Dalby said.
Civil Society has asked the FCA and the Treasury to comment.
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