Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 10 June (HL671), what recommendations are they considering for the equitable distribution of general practitioners in England; and whether any amendments to implement any such proposals would be in scope of the NHS modernisation bill.

We recognise that the uneven distribution of general practitioners (GPs) is a longstanding, generational challenge which successive administrations have sought to overcome. As we consider future interventions we are looking carefully at lessons from previous approaches, such as Medical Practices Committees, whilst taking account of the current workforce position and contracting landscape within General Practice.

We acknowledge the urgent challenge of ensuring practices facing particular workforce pressures have the resources to continue serving their patients. To address this, we are taking steps to increase capacity in GPs and ensure every practice has the necessary workforce to provide integrated, patient-centred services.

Following stakeholder feedback from the 2026/27 GP Contract consultation, we have introduced a practice-level GP reimbursement scheme using £292 million of repurposed funding from the current Capacity and Access Payment. This funding is available to practices to hire additional GPs or to fund additional sessions with existing GPs to improve access in practices. This aims to strengthen capacity, access, and improve patient satisfaction.

We have also increased flexibility of the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) by removing the restriction that ARRS funding can only be used for recently qualified GPs, increasing the maximum reimbursement amount for GP roles to reflect experience, and enabling primary care networks to recruit a broader range of ARRS roles, where agreed with the commissioner.

We recognise the importance of ensuring funding for core GP services is distributed fairly between practices across the country and we know that the current distribution formula is considered outdated. The first phase of a review of the Carr-Hill formula concluded in May and the recommendations are with the Department for consideration.

We are grateful to Parliament for their scrutiny of the Health Bill and look forward to debating any amendments in due course.