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 help GPs who are unable to find employment despite workforce shortages.

The Government has invested £82 million in the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS), which has enabled the recruitment of more than 1,900 recently qualified general practitioners (GPs) in England since October. This will increase the number of available appointments, secure the future supply of GPs, and alleviate the pressure on those currently working in the system.

Under recently announced changes to the GP Contract in 2025/26, the ARRS will become more flexible to allow primary care networks to respond better to local workforce needs. The two ARRS pots have been combined to create a single pot for reimbursement of patient-facing staff costs. There will be no restrictions on the number or type of staff covered, including GPs and practice nurses.

On 27 February, the Government and the British Medical Association agreed to the changes to the GP Contract to fix the front door of the National Health Service, and to bring back the family doctor. We are investing an additional £889 million in GPs for 2025/26, bringing total spending on the GP Contract to £13.2 billion. This is the largest uplift to GP funding since the beginning of the five-year framework, and means we are reversing recent trends by allocating a rising share of NHS resources to GPs.