Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to (a) retain existing and (b) recruit new GPs in Sussex.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

We are committed to training thousands more general practitioners (GPs) across the country, including in Sussex. We invested an additional £82 million into the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) over 2024/25, as part of an initiative to address GP unemployment and secure the future pipeline of GPs.

We are investing an additional £889 million through the GP Contract to reinforce the front door of the National Health Service, bringing total spend on the GP Contract to £13.2 billion in 2025/26. This is the biggest increase in over a decade.

Our commitment to growing the GP workforce includes addressing the reasons why doctors leave the profession and encouraging them to return to practice. We know that high workloads can be a key driver for GPs reducing their contracted hours or leaving the profession and we are tackling morale issues through drivers such as growing the workforce and reducing bureaucracy through our Red Tape Challenge, to improve job satisfaction and reduce the risk of burnout.

The fully qualified GP workforce in Sussex has increased by 6.3% or 51.0 full-time equivalent (FTE) compared to January 2024 and compared with 2.7% nationally or 1,019 FTE.

I understand that the Sussex Primary Care Workforce Plan was developed and published last year, and aims to further develop a sustainable healthcare workforce, ensuring high-quality patient care despite rising demand. The plan prioritises expanding the workforce, improving staff retention, and introducing innovative training methods.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent representations she has received from legal professional bodies on the performance of employment tribunals.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Ministers and officials have regular meetings with legal professional bodies to discuss a range of matters about the justice system.

To address the demands the Employment Tribunals are facing, their capacity is being increased. Following recruitment, in 2024 we had 21 more salaried judges in the Employment Tribunals than in 2023, and further recruitment for up to 36 salaried Employment Judges commenced in March 2025. 50 fee paid employment judges were appointed in 2024 and recruitment will commence for another 50 in early 2026.

HM Courts & Tribunals Service continues to invest in improving tribunal productivity through the recruitment of additional judges, deployment of Legal Officers to actively manage cases, the development of modern case management systems, and the use of remote hearing technology. A ‘Virtual Region’ of judges has delivered over 1,500 extra sitting days.

As a result, the Lord Chancellor was able to announce on 5 March a sitting day allocation for the Employment Tribunals of 33,900 in 2025/26, the maximum allocation they are able to sit.

We do recognise that there remain significant challenges for the performance of the Employment Tribunals. We are therefore continuing to monitor demand on Employment Tribunals and are working with the judiciary, HMCTS and the Department for Business and Trade on any further actions needed to alleviate pressures on the Employment Tribunals, improve efficiency and reduce waiting times to ensure timely access to justice for claimants and respondents.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what funding has been allocated to the employment tribunal system in each of the last three financial years; and what proportion of that funding has been spent on digital case management systems.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The table above gives the total allocated budget for the Employment Tribunals in the years shown in £m. This includes all staff costs, judicial salaries and fees, and other direct costs from the operation of the tribunals and the specific IT systems relating to Employment Tribunals, though excludes wider overheads such as the costs of buildings and other general IT systems.

It is not possible to identify separately the full running cost of the Employment Tribunals digital case management systems, as all maintenance, development and analysis work is carried out by HM Courts & Tribunals Service’s centrally-managed digital and data teams.

Found: Perkins (Chair); Catherine Atkinson; Ellie Chowns; Bill Esterson; Barry Gardiner; Sarah Gibson; Alison Griffiths

Found: Wednesbury) John Cooper (Conservative; Dumfries and Galloway) Sarah Edwards (Labour; Tamworth) Alison Griffiths

Found: Q180 Alison Griffiths: Could I ask a supplementary to what you have just been speaking about?

Found: Q180 Alison Griffiths: Could I ask a supplementary to what you have just been speaking about?

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Liam Byrne (Chair); Antonia Bance; John Cooper; Alison Griffiths;

Submit Evidence (by 26 May 2025)

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