Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 11 March 2025 to Question 36426 on General Practitioners, how the additional 6,716,007 appointments were created.

Increased appointment volumes are largely driven by growth in the general practice workforce. Between June 2023 and June 2024, there was an increase of 1,042 full-time equivalent (FTE) doctors in general practice and 5,954 other FTE clinical staff, allowing for the delivery of additional appointments from July 2024 onwards.

We continue to work to grow the general practice workforce; as part of changes to the 2025/26 GP contract, we have increased flexibilities in the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS), including merging funding pots and expanding reimbursable roles, and we are recruiting an additional 1,000 general practitioners through a £82 million boost to the ARRS.