Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of his Department's policy to reduce the minimum practice income guarantee.

The Minimum Practice Income Guarantee is being phased out because it is inequitable. Under the system, two practices in the same area and serving very similar populations may be paid very different amounts of money per registered patient.

The payments are being phased out over seven years, to allow practices time to adjust to the new arrangements. The funds released are being added to the ‘global sum’ – the basic payments made to all General Medical Services practices, which are based on numbers of patients and key determinants of practice workload, such as the age and health needs of patients.

NHS England, which is responsible for commissioning primary care services, is committed to supporting the small number of practices that are significantly affected by the changes.