Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the cost to the public purse of the establishment of freephone numbers for patients to contact GP surgeries.

General practitioner (GP) practices are contracted and paid by NHS England to provide primary medical services for the National Health Service. As independent contractors, it is their responsibility to make their own business decisions; and this includes the choice and associated costs of telephone services. Therefore, there is no additional cost to the public purse over and above the income that practices receive from the NHS.