Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he plans to take to increase the number of GPs in South East London.

The Government committed to recruiting over 1,000 recently qualified general practitioners (GPs) in primary care networks (PCNs) through an £82 million boost to the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) over 2024/25, as part of an initiative to secure the future pipeline of GPs. This funding has been continued into 2025/26.

Data on the number of recently qualified GPs for which PCNs are claiming reimbursement via the ARRS show that since 1 October 2024, over 2,000 GPs were recruited through the scheme. Several changes have been made to increase the flexibility of the ARRS in 2025/26. This includes GPs and practice nurses included in the main ARRS funding pot, an uplift of the maximum reimbursable rate for GPs in the scheme, and no caps on the number of GPs that can be employed through the scheme.

Thanks to new flexibilities under the ARRS, South East London general practices have grown the number of GPs across South East London by approximately 40 working time equivalent between July 2024 and July 2025, utilising the funding offered through this scheme to bring South East London in line with the London average of GPs per 10,000 registered population.

NHS South East London has work programmes in place to improve recruitment and retention and has commissioned a package of recruitment and retention support from the South East London Workforce Development Hub, a training hub for general practice.

We are investing an additional £1,092 million in general practice to reinforce the front door of the National Health Service, bringing total spend on the GP Contract to £13.4 billion in 2025/26. This is the biggest increase in over a decade. The 8.9% boost to the GP contract in 2025/26 is faster than the 5.8% growth to the NHS budget overall.