Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of integrated care boards in delivering new (a) GP and (b) medical centres in Leicestershire.

Integrated care boards (ICBs) are best placed to understand the needs of their local population and to make decisions on new general practice (GP) surgeries based on those needs. ICBs’ annual commissioning plans must consider requirements for new practices, including those driven by population growth, contract expiries, or unplanned closures.

The Government is committed to delivering a National Health Service that is fit for the future. That is why we have set out our commitment to fix the front door to the National Health Service, for example through the £102 million Primary Care Utilisation and Modernisation Fund for upgrades to more than a thousand GP surgeries across England over this financial year.

The NHS Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland ICB has been allocated the following amounts from national capital programmes and operational capital for 2025/26:

- £14.8 million from the Constitutional Standards Recovery Fund;

- £9.3 million from the Estates Safety Fund;

- £1.8 million from the Primary Care Utilisation Fund; and

- £70.8 million in operational capital funding.

We will trial Neighbourhood Health Centres to bring together a range of services, ensuring healthcare is closer to home and patients receive the care they deserve.