Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the reply by Lord Kamall on 16 November (HL Deb, cols. 158–160), whether they expect to meet their target to increase the number of GPs by 6000 by 2024.

While progress against the target to increase the number of doctors in general practice by 6,000 by 2024 has been challenging, we remain committed to increasing the general practitioner (GP) workforce as soon as possible. In September 2021, there were 1,841 more full time equivalent doctors in general practice than September 2019 - a headcount increase of 2,634.

We are working with NHS England and NHS Improvement, Health Education England and the profession to increase recruitment, address the reasons why doctors leave the profession and encourage them to return to practice. We have increased the number of GP training places with 4,000 doctors accepting a place this year, from 2,671 in 2014.