Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with (a) officials of his Department and (b) NHS England on issuing guidance to GPs on dealing with pressures on their services during winter 2020-21.

In July NHS England and NHS Improvement set out in a letter to the system the priorities that the National Health Service must focus on for phase 3 of the COVID-19 response from August 2020, including over winter.

In November NHS England and NHS Improvement issued further guidance on winter pressures and priorities, and announced £150 million of ring-fenced funding to support expansion of general practice capacity up until the end of March 2021.

These communications and further guidance are available on the NHS website: www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/publication/preparedness-letters-for-general-practice/

NHS England and NHS Improvement regularly reviews and updates its standard operating procedures and communications to primary care providers, to ensure that they are equipped to respond to the pandemic. Local commissioners will also have escalation plans in place to respond to and support general practice during winter.