Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the capacity of general practice across England and Wales to deliver online booking to patients.

NHS England and NHS Improvement continue to review the online booking of appointments in general practice. Since 2015, general practitioner (GP) practices have been required to offer online booking and from April 2019, a significant proportion of appointments must be available online. Due to the pandemic and the adoption of online consultation systems and triage models, NHS England and NHS Improvement amended the requirements for practices operating a triage model. The 2022/23 GP contract letter states that certain appointment types should now be available online, to provide general practices with greater flexibility.