Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an estimate of the proportion of requests for specialist care which will be refused due to the requirement for GPs to use the Advice and Guidance system from 1 April 2026.

The purpose of Advice and Guidance (A&G) is not to refuse care but to ensure patients are seen in the right place, first time.

Where the outcome of A&G is that care management in primary or community settings is in the patient’s best interests, it is expected that patients will receive timelier care, benefiting from earlier specialist input. In these cases, the general practitioner may still subsequently refer their patient again at any point if they have concerns.

Management data shows between April 2025 and November 2025, there were 2,210,443 processed A&G requests where a specialist has returned the advice, and 1,095,172, or 45.7% of total requests, have been diverted, where the outcome of A&G is that a referral is not required.