Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the current tariff for the Minor Surgery Directed Enhanced Service in the context of rising operational costs.

General practices (GPs) are paid for minor surgery directed enhanced services through global sum payments, although they have the option to opt out of these services, and if so, the relevant deductions will be made from their global sum payments.

Every year we consult with the profession about what services GPs provide, including Directed Enhanced Services, and the money providers are entitled to in return under their contracts.

We are investing an additional £889 million in GPs to reinforce the front door of the National Health Service, bringing total spend on the GP Contract to £13.2 billion in 2025/26. This is the biggest increase in over a decade and means we are reversing the recent trend with a rising share of total NHS resources going to GPs. We are pleased that the General Practitioners Committee England is supportive of the contract changes.