Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government is taking to support the re-development of primary care facilities that are no longer fit for purpose.

The National Health Service is currently supporting developments and improvements through the Estates and Technology Transformation Fund (ETTF) and an Improvement Grant budget within primary care estates. The ETTF aims to accelerate changes in general practice infrastructure to enable improvement in access and service quality. The ETTF is investing £800 million in both capital and revenue between 2016 and 2021. This is in addition to annual investment in general practice IT (Information Technology) and ‘business as usual’ capital.

The NHS Long Term Plan outlines a prominent role for primary care networks for delivering the shift of activity from the acute sector to an in-community care environment. The Health Infrastructure Plan, published September 2019, recognises that community care and primary care is critical to the delivery of personalised and preventative health. Future NHS capital funding, including for primary care, will be provided as part of the Department's multi-year capital settlement at the Spending Review which will conclude in autumn 2020.