Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 15 September to Question 68833 on General Practitioners: Recruitment, where the underspend in the additional roles reimbursement scheme was reallocated.

In 2019/20, commissioners were asked to reinvest underspend in wider general practice services. In 2020/21, underspend was invested in supporting the delivery of the COVID vaccination programme. In 2021/22, underspend was reinvested in providing allocations for the Winter Access Fund. In 2022/23, underspend was reinvested in Acute Respiratory Infection Hubs and Pharmacy First.

In 2023/24 and 2024/25, where underspends occurred in national programmes for general practice such as this, any funding that couldn’t be reinvested in general practice contributed to supporting the overall National Health Service financial position.