Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department has taken to help mitigate pressure on GP services.

To help expand general practice capacity, we have made available an additional £270 million from November 2020 until September 2021 to ensure general practitioners (GPs) and their teams are able to continue to support all patients. To ensure patients can continue to access primary care, practices are being asked to opt into the autumn booster vaccine delivery scheme only if they and local commissioners, are satisfied that practices can deliver business as usual services at the same time. Primary Care Networks (PCNs) are encouraged to make use of the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme, representing funding for an average of 12-13 additional full time equivalent members of staff in post for each PCN. To further support PCNs, the recent GP contract package provides £43 million leadership and management funding for the remainder of this year.