To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will take steps to introduce a scheme of financial assistance to voluntary hospices for Her Majesty's Government to match pound for pound, up to 50 per cent. of running costs, money raised by the voluntary sector.

I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave my hon. Friend the Member for Banbury (Mr. Baldry) on 15 December 1989 at columns 846–47.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will visit the Hospice of the Good Shepherd, Backford, near Chester, to meet the medical director to discuss the work of the hospice.

We would be pleased to consider an invitation from the hospice.