Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what resources his Department has provided to facilitate the participation by GP practices in the Advice and Guidance scheme in Buckingham and Bletchley constituency since 1 April 2025.

Integrated care boards (ICBs) were instructed to invite all general practices to participate in the enhanced service specification for General Practice Requests for Advice and Guidance (A&G) 2025/26, which sees practices entitled to claim a £20 fee per request for pre-referral advice and guidance, no later than 13 May 2025. The Government has made £80 million available to fund up to four million A&G requests so general practitioners (GPs) can access advice ahead of making a referral, recognising the importance of their role in ensuring patient care takes place in the most appropriate setting.

NHS England has developed supporting resources to aid continued use of A&G, including a toolkit with guidance for GPs as well as for commissioners and secondary care clinical teams, and an operational delivery framework which sets a roadmap for ICBs to expand and improve their use of A&G across seven themes and with a set of minimum standards for best practice.