General Practitioners

(asked on 7th February 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether it is the policy of NHS England to require a person to provide photographic ID to register with a GP.


Answered by
Steve Brine Portrait
Steve Brine
This question was answered on 26th February 2018

NHS England’s policy ‘Patient Registration, Standard Operating Principles for Primary Medical Care (General Practice)’ states that:

“When applying to become a patient there is no regulatory requirement to prove identity, address, immigration status or the provision of an NHS number in order to register. However, there are practical reasons why a practice might need to be assured that people are who they say they are, or to check where they live, so it can help the process if a patient can provide relevant documents. There is however no contractual requirement to request this nor is establishing an individual’s identity the role of General Practice.

Any practice policy to ask for patient ID should be applied in a non-discriminatory fashion. This means the policy should apply to all prospective patients equally.”

As there is no requirement under the regulations to produce identity or residence information, the patient must be registered on application unless the practice has reasonable grounds to decline.

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