General Practitioners: Indemnity Scheme

Debate between Lord Suri and Lord O'Shaughnessy

Monday 16th July 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord O’Shaughnessy]

That is a very existential question. The point is that we need to introduce the scheme by April and are absolutely committed to that. There are some very big decisions to be made on the scheme design now. We have a new Secretary of State who is getting up to speed on these issues as we speak. Our intention is to make those decisions to confirm the design of the scheme and to be able to tell GPs and other stakeholders publicly as soon as possible. We are committed to the April 2019 deadline.

[Lord Suri (Con)]

My Lords, is such a scheme currently available to general practitioners in any other part of the United Kingdom?

[Lord O’Shaughnessy]

I can tell my noble friend that the scheme we are designing is for England, the jurisdiction that the department looks after. However, the Welsh Government have announced their intention to have a state-backed scheme and we are speaking to the devolved Administrations in Scotland and Northern Ireland to make sure that we act together in this regard.