Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is their estimate of the proportion of NHS-registered GPs in England who offer all patients the ability to make an appointment in person or by phone rather than through the NHS app or other online booking facilities.

The GP Contract requires all practices to enable patients to telephone or visit their practice in person to make appointments. Online tools must always be provided in addition to, rather than as a replacement for, other channels for accessing a general practitioner, and practice receptions should be open so that patients without access to telephone or online services are in no way disadvantaged.

To support patients who depend on telephone bookings, recent contractual changes require all general practices to offer online booking throughout core hours, from 8:00am to 6:30pm. This is designed to ease pressure on phone lines by allowing those who prefer online booking to do so at any time, freeing up phone lines, reducing long phone queues, and improving the experience for those reliant on telephone bookings.