Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department provides guidance to GPs on the suitability of premises for the delivery of GP services.

Providers are expected to comply with Regulation 15 Premises and equipment in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. Premises where care and treatment are delivered must be clean, and suitable for the intended purpose. Adequate support facilities and amenities must be provided where relevant to the service being provided. For general practice (GP) premises this includes access to toilets, adequate seating, and waiting space. The Care Quality Commission can take regulatory action for failure to comply, for instance issuing a warning notice to the provider to make improvements.

In 2025/26 we committed to investing £102 million to upgrade GP surgeries across England, through the Primary Care Utilisation and Modernisation Fund (PCUMF). This has supported 790 capital investment projects across England so far, upgrading GP buildings by bringing unused space into clinical use to enable approximately nine million clinical appointments and improving capacity. We will continue the PCUMF, providing £200 million of further investment this Parliament. Capital guidance for 2026/27 to 2029/30 has been issued by NHS England, which sets out the framework for multi-year spend, and which is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/capital-guidance-2026-27-to-2029-30/