Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he had with (a) the British Medical Association, (b) the Royal College of General Practitioners and (c) other representative groups before announcing the timetable for the creation of primary care networks.

My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State has met with both Richard Vautrey and Helen Stokes-Lampard as representatives of the profession to discuss a range of issues, including, but not limited to, the creation of Primary Care Networks.

In addition, Departmental officials have been in regular communication with both the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) and the British Medical Association (BMA) throughout the development of the Primary Care Networks policy and will continue these close working relationships as the networks are implemented.

The Primary Care Network Directed Enhanced Service specification, which sets out the timetable for networks, was agreed with the General Practitioners Committee and the BMA as part of negotiations on the contract for 2019/20.