Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to (a) work with GP practices to ensure nursing staff receive pay increases in line with national recommendations and (b) facilitate the shift of pay awards from October to April so that no portion of annual remuneration is lost; and what assessment he has made of the need for a framework that guarantees government-allocated funding for staff pay is used for that intended purpose.

The Government is committed to ensuring that the general practice (GP) nursing workforce is sustainable, supported, and valued for the work they do.

As self-employed contractors to the National Health Service, it is up to GPs how they distribute pay and benefits to their staff. Funding for GP nursing pay is not ringfenced and contractual arrangements do not place any specific obligations on GPs with regard to GP nurse terms and conditions.

The independent review body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration has recommended an uplift of 4% to the pay ranges for salaried GPs, and to GP contractor pay for 2025/26. We have provided an increase to core funding for practices to allow this 4% pay uplift to be passed on to salaried and contractor GPs.

We expect GP contractors to implement pay rises to other practice staff in line with the uplift in funding they have received.

The Government has committed to a new substantive GP Contract within this Parliament cycle, and we will continue to engage constructively with the General Practitioners Committee England on issues such as staffing.