Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment has he made of the number of registered GPs not in employment; and whether he is taking steps to reduce the number of unemployed GPs.

We hugely value the critical role that general practitioners (GPs) play and are determined to address the issues they face by shifting the focus of the National Health Service beyond hospitals and into the community. The Government committed to recruiting over 1,000 recently qualified GPs through an £82 million boost to the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) over 2024/25, as part of an initiative to address GP unemployment and secure the future pipeline of GPs.

We are investing an additional £889 million through the GP contract to reinforce the front door of the NHS, bringing total spend on the GP Contract to £13.2 billion in 2025/26. This is the biggest increase in over a decade.

Under recently announced changes to the GP contract in 2025/26, the ARRS will become more flexible to allow primary care networks (PCNs) to respond better to local workforce needs. The two ARRS pots will be combined to create a single pot for reimbursement of patient facing staff costs. There will be no restrictions on the number or type of staff covered, including GPs and practice nurses.

In a drive to recruit GPs via the ARRS and to bring back the family doctor, the salary element of the maximum reimbursement amount that PCNs can claim for GPs will be increased from £73,113 in 2024/25, the bottom of the salaried GP pay range, to £82,418, an uplift of £9,305 representing the lower quartile of the salaried GP pay range, as some GPs will be entering their second year in the scheme. Proportionate employer on-costs will also be included within the overall maximum reimbursement amount which PCNs will be able to claim.

Data on the number of unemployed GPs is not held centrally.