Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing an upper age limit for NHS GPs.

The General Medical Council (GMC) is the independent regulator of all medical doctors practising in the United Kingdom which sets and enforces the standards all doctors must adhere to. In order to practise medicine in the UK, doctors are required to hold registration with a licence to practise.

To maintain their licence to practise, all doctors, regardless of their age, must demonstrate through the GMC's revalidation process that they remain up to date and fit to practise.'

There is currently no mandated retirement age for general practices and the Department has no plans to make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing an upper age limit for NHS GPs.