Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve managerial support for GPs.

Regarding the oversight of general practices (GPs), GPs are independent businesses, providing primary care services based on a National Health Service GP Contract to their local populations. Most commonly, GPs are run by GP partners who, alongside other GPs and healthcare staff, are responsible for running their own practice.

NHS England has delegated its responsibilities for the direct commissioning of primary care services, for instance primary medical, dental, ophthalmic, and community pharmacy services, to integrated care boards (ICBs).

The responsibilities delegated are set out in the standard delegation agreement between NHS England and each ICB. This includes contractual management and supporting the improvement and transformation of services. Further information on the delegation agreement is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/commissioning/publication/delegation-of-primary-medical-dental-ophthalmic-and-pharmaceutical-functions/#heading-1

We are investing an additional £1.1 billion in general practice to reinforce the front door of the NHS, bringing total spend on the GP Contract to £13.4 billion in 2025/26. This is the biggest cash increase in over a decade. The 8.9% boost to the GP contract in 2025/26 is greater than the 5.8% growth to the NHS budget as a whole and reflects this government’s commitment to improve support for general practice and ease pressure on general practitioners.