Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to his speech of 19 June 2015, A New Deal for General Practice, and the announcement of a £10 million fund to support struggling GP practices, (a) whether such funding represents a new investment or the diversion of existing funds from elsewhere, (b) from where the £10 million will be sourced, (c) how eligibility for financial support under that programme will be determined, (d) whether such support will be contingent upon efforts on the part of qualifying practices to extend access to their services to seven days a week and (e) when he expects the first instalments of that fund to be paid to qualifying practices.

NHS England will be investing up to £10 million to develop a programme of support for general practitioner practices where the Care Quality Commission has identified quality concerns in need of improvement.

The funding will be drawn from this year’s Primary Care Infrastructure Fund, a £1 billion investment over four years, announced as part of the 2014 autumn statement.

The programme of support will be developed with NHS Clinical Commissioners and will take learning from a pilot scheme which is being currently being delivered by the Royal College of General Practitioners.

Further details of the programme will be released by NHS England in due course.