General Practitioners: Indemnity Scheme

Baroness Jolly Excerpts

Monday 16th July 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord O’Shaughnessy]

I agree with the noble Baroness’s final point. Indeed, one reason for sorting out this scheme is that we know it is a barrier to people joining the profession and, unfortunately, encourages them to leave it. There is of course an urgency, but nevertheless it is a complex discussion with commercial partners. I can tell her that we are talking to GPs themselves and their representative organisations to make sure they understand what is at stake, what we intend to do and that we intend to introduce the new scheme in April.

[Baroness Jolly (LD)]

My Lords, on 1 June, a DHSC spokesperson said:

“We are continuing to work closely with key stakeholders in the development of the scheme from April 2019”—


as the Minister said. The spokesperson went on:

“We will provide a further update in the near future”.


GPs need reassurance that this will not be kicked into the long grass. What is the department’s understanding of the “near future”—is it six weeks, six months or a year?

[Lord O’Shaughnessy]

That is a very existential question. The point is that we need to introduce the scheme by April and are absolutely committed to that. There are some very big decisions to be made on the scheme design now. We have a new Secretary of State who is getting up to speed on these issues as we speak. Our intention is to make those decisions to confirm the design of the scheme and to be able to tell GPs and other stakeholders publicly as soon as possible. We are committed to the April 2019 deadline.