To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate his Department has made of the number of GP practices that will be affected by changes to National Insurance announced at the Autumn Budget 2024.
Answered on
7 May 2025
We have made necessary decisions to fix the foundations of the public finances in the Autumn Budget. Resource spending for the Department will be £22.6 billion more in 2025/26 than in 2023/24, as part of the Spending Review settlement. The employers’ National Insurance (NI) rise was implemented in April 2025.
General practices are valued independent contractors and will therefore be subject to the employers’ NI rise. Every year, we consult with the profession about what services general practice provides, and the money providers are entitled to in return under their contract, taking account of the cost of delivering services.
We are investing an additional £889 million in general practice to fix the front door of the NHS, bringing total spend on the GP Contract to £13.2 billion in 2025/26. This is the biggest increase in over a decade, and we are pleased that the England General Practitioners’ Committee of the British Medical Association is supportive of the contract changes