Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many general practitioner surgeries are open seven days a week; and if he will make a statement.

Data is not held centrally on how many general practices are open seven days a week.

However, the Government recognises the importance of timely access to general practice. This is why the Prime Minister's Challenge Fund has allocated £50 million to support 20 pilots to test innovative ways of improving access to general practitioner services and patient experience in their local areas. The pilots will benefit over 7.5 million patients across more than 1,110 practice, from rural areas to inner cities.

A wide variety of approaches to improving access are being tested: extended opening hours on weekdays and weekends; better use of telecare and health apps; more innovative ways to access services by Skype, email or phone; more integrated services with a single point of contact to co-ordinate patients services across health and social care.

Learning and best practice from the pilots will be shared with the wider NHS during the course of the pilot programme.