Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data his Department holds on the number of GPs who are (a) unemployed and looking for work and (b) under-employed and looking for additional work in (i) Broxtowe constituency, (ii) the East Midlands and (iii) England.

The data requested is not held centrally. Thanks to actions taken by the Government, we have the highest number of fully qualified general practitioners (GPs) since 2015, and steps are being taken to grow the GP workforce further.

We are investing £485 million in GPs in 2026/27, bringing the total spend on the GP Contract to over £13.8 billion. This builds on the £1.1 billion boost in investment in 2025/26. As part of the 2026/27 GP Contract, we are increasing flexibility of the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) by removing the restriction that ARRS funding can only be used for recently qualified GPs, increasing the maximum reimbursement amount for GP roles to reflect experience, and enabling primary care networks to recruit a broader range of ARRS roles, where agreed with the commissioner.

Patient satisfaction is already rising after a decade of decline; in July 2024, only 61% of patients found it easy to access their GP. Currently, it is almost 77%.

Following feedback from the 2026/27 GP Contract consultation, we are introducing a practice-level GP reimbursement scheme which ring-fences and repurposes £292 million of funding from the current Capacity and Access Payment. This funding will be available to practices to hire additional GPs or fund additional sessions with existing GPs to improve access in GPs. This aims to strengthen capacity, access, and improve patient satisfaction, whilst also addressing GP unemployment and underemployment.