Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the process is by which the GP access allocation for clinical commissioning groups is determined.

The weighted population of each clinical commissioning group (CCG) was used to determine the general practitioner (GP) access allocation. The NHS England Technical Guide to Allocation Formulae and Pace of Change, for 2016-17 to 2020-21 revenue allocations to CCGs and commissioning areas (published April 2016) was used to forecast CCG allocations until 2020/21. This document explains the rationale behind the projection and the Office for National Statistics forecast to calculate the registered and weighted populations for five years.

There were two exceptions:

- London, given some of the unique characteristics of London, the allocation (whilst still weighted) for London schemes was made available for deployment across the whole of the geographical area to support improvements; and

- Manchester, with its devolved status secured a top slice of the GP access allocation budget for each financial year in the current settlement review period.