Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many GP practices have (a) closed and (b) opened in (i) England, (ii) Greater London and (iii) Wales in each of the last five years.

Figures for NHS England and the NHS London area are shown in the following table. Figures for Wales are not collected centrally.

It is important to note that these figures also include practice mergers and takeovers and do not provide an accurate representation of activity or service provision. For example, the merger of three practices would show as three practices closing and one opening. In many cases, practices listed in these figures as having closed will have in fact merged, and will continue to see patients.