Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many GP practices (a) closed and (b) opened in (i) England, (ii) Greater London and (iii) Enfield in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement.

The Health and Social Care Information Centre collect information on the number of practices opened and closed, which is contained in the attached table.

It is important to note that these figures also include practice mergers and takeovers and do not provide an accurate representation of activity or service provision. In many cases, practices listed in these figures as having closed, will have in fact merged and will continue to see patients. In addition, in this time period the definition of general practice has changed to become a more stringent classification.