Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 14 December 2016 to Question 56319, for what reasons his Department chose to commit to providing an additional 5,000 doctors working in general practice by 2020.

The Government committed to an additional 5,000 doctors working in general practice by 2020 based on the Centre for Workforce Intelligence’s in-depth review of the general practitioner workforce, published in July 2014. This was a medium-term strategic review looking ahead to 2030, designed to provide an evidence base for forecasting workforce demand and supply. The report is available at the following link:

http://www.cfwi.org.uk/publications/in-depth-review-of-the-gp-workforce