Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of GP premises in Wiltshire; and what recent estimate he has made of the number of practices operating in buildings considered unfit for purpose.

The Government is committed to delivering a National Health Service that is fit for the future, with world class infrastructure across the entire NHS estate and confronting the challenges posed by historic underinvestment in primary care.

There are 8,500 buildings that form the general practice (GP) estate nationally and we have worked with integrated care systems to develop infrastructure strategies which create a long-term plan for future estate requirements and investment for each local area and its specific needs. These strategies bring together planning for the existing and future primary care and secondary estate when considering how best to improve local service delivery.

Bath, Northeast Somerset, Swindon & Wiltshire Integrated Care Board is responsible for commissioning, planning, securing, and monitoring GP services within Wiltshire through delegated responsibility from NHS England and works with local practices to ensure that the community continues to receive world class health services.

We recently announced over 1,000 GP schemes which will benefit from this year's £102 million Primary Care Utilisation and Modernisation Fund, supporting GPs to improve the use of their existing buildings and space, boosting productivity and enabling delivery of more appointments. However, GPs are independent contractors who should routinely fund investment in maintaining their estate by utilising their own funds, borrowing, or through partnerships with third party developers.