Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Royal College of General Practitioners report entitled Fit for the Future GP Pressures 2023, published in March 2023, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the findings of that report on the adequacy of booking systems used in general practice; and if he will make a statement.

No specific assessment has been made. It is up to individual general practices (GPs) how they manage their own appointment booking systems, to meet the reasonable needs of their registered patients.

We recognise that GPs, like other parts of the health system, are under pressure and that demand remains high. We are working to create an additional 50 million GP appointments a year by 2024, by expanding and diversifying the workforce, which should increase capacity.