Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to enable all day booking at GP surgeries.

The 2025/26 GP Contract has been updated to give patients the right to access help electronically, including requesting appointments, throughout the duration of core practice hours.

All practices in England are required to offer online and video consultation tools, secure electronic communication methods, and online facilities to provide and update personal information.

Practices are required to offer patients an appropriate response on the day they contact the practice, or the next day if they contact the practice in the afternoon, according to the urgency of their clinical needs and other circumstances. An appropriate response could, for example, involve inviting the patient to an appointment, providing appropriate advice or care by another method, signposting to the patient to appropriate services, or communicating with the patient to request more information.