Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to give patients greater freedom to book appointments at any GP practice.

Since January 2015, all general practitioner (GP) practices may register patients from outside their traditional practice boundary areas.

This benefits patients by giving them more freedom, choice and control over where they access GP services.

It is for individual practices to decide whether it would be clinically appropriate or practical to accept patients from outside the practice area onto their list. Where they do so, NHS England is responsible for arrangements for home visiting or access to urgent care for those patients when away from the practice area.