The government has condemned any form of so-called voluntary euthanasia which deprives elderly patients of food and drink.

Speaking at question time in the House of Lords on Wednesday, junior health minister Lord Hunt of Kings Heath said any such action by NHS doctors would be "quite wrong".

"We would utterly condemn circumstances in which older people were being deprived of food and drink," he said.

His comments came after former Tory MP Baroness Knight of Collingtree said that police were investigating "over 60 cases of maladministration against elderly patients in NHS hospitals".

"How do you react to the allegations that those people are quite deliberately being withheld food and drink because a dead patient means an empty bed?" she asked the minister.

Lady Knight demanded "an immediate instruction to NHS hospitals that such treatment will simply not be tolerated".

Lord Hunt said he could not comment on some of the allegations as they were under police investigation.

But he stressed that the government was determined to ensure NHS services for elderly people were "of the highest quality".