Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 7 September 2015 to Question 8027, what information his Department holds on the forecast amount to be spent on recruitment campaigns for GPs in each of the next two financial years; and if he will make a statement.

In January 2015, Health Education England (HEE), alongside NHS England, the Royal College of General Practitioners and the British Medical Association’s General Practitioners Committee, jointly published Building the Workforce – the new deal for general practice which set out an action plan to increase general practitioner (GP) numbers. This plan, which has been allocated £10 million of the Primary Care Infrastructure Fund for this year, includes a campaign targeted at recruitment to GP training which is due to commence later this month. HEE is currently in discussions with NHS England regarding the budget to be committed to this campaign. Any further allocations for such work to continue during 2016-17 and 2017-18 will, if necessary, be determined as part of the wider Spending Review negotiations across Government.