Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of GPs working in the NHS were over 50 in (a) 2012 and (b) 2015.

The annual National Health Service General and Personal Medical Services workforce census, published by the Health and Social Care Information Centre, shows the numbers of general practitioners (GPs) working in the NHS in England at 30 September each year.

The latest available statistics are for 2014. The percentage of GPs (excluding registrars and retainers) aged 50 years and over was 40.0% in 2012 and 39.1% in 2014. On a full-time equivalent basis it was 40.6% in 2012 and 38.9% in 2014.

Statistics for 2015 will be published on 30 March 2016.