Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate he has made of the number of GPs who (a) have been allocated funds for property rental and (b) are granted NHS premises who fail to pay the rent due; and if he will make a statement.

The Department owns two companies that provide premises for general practitioner (GP) services: NHS Property Services Ltd and Community Health Partnerships Ltd.

At the end of the 2017-18 financial year, £202 million of rent and associated charges was recorded as overdue from GPs in the two companies’ accounts.

NHS England and clinical commissioning groups provide funding to GPs for premises costs. There is no centrally held assessment of numbers of GP practices who have received premises funding and not paid it to either of the companies.