Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average number of hours worked by a GP was in each of the last 10 years.

Data on the average number of hours worked by a general Practitioner (GP) in each of the last 10 years is not held centrally.

The National GP Worklife Survey 2012 (published in 2013) conducted by the University of Manchester asked GPs how many hours they spent, on average, per week, doing NHS GP-related work. This included all clinical and non-clinical NHS work but excluded out of hours work. In the last three released surveys, the average number of weekly hours worked was as follows:

Note: prior to 2008, the question wording changed, and therefore the data collected cannot be used for accurate comparison.

Source: Seventh National GP Worklife Survey; University of Manchester; 2013

This report showed no significant change in the average weekly hours worked by GPs over the 2008-2012 time period. It should also be noted that the sample size varied between the samples and did not necessarily involve the same GPs.