Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to review the use of locum GPs in the North East of England.

County Durham Clinical Commissioning Group has reported that there is not a workforce issue in primary care in the area and that general practice is managing well with a high proportion of consultations now provided over the phone or online. Locums are being used where required in the short term where there are shortages. At a national level, general practitioner (GP) locums as well as returners and substantive GPs wishing to increase their hours are providing additional patient care within the NHS 111 COVID-19 Clinical Assessment Services.