Written question asked by Paul Marsden (Labour) on Wednesday, 28 March 2001, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 10 April 2001. It was answered by Yvette Cooper (Labour) on Tuesday, 10 April 2001 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Dept of Health

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average GP budget was in (a) May 1997 and (b) in the most recent financial year for which figures are available in Shrewsbury and Atcham; and if he will make a statement. - Includes fact that information is not collected centrally in regard to individual general practitioner's budgets.

Answer: Mr. Paul Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average GP budget was in (a) May 1997 and (b) in the most recent financial year for which figures are available in Shrewsbury and Atcham; and if he will make a statement. [156498] Yvette Cooper: Information is not collected centrally in regard to individual general practitioner's budgets. Indeed, as independent contractors, GPs do not receive budgets as such. Also, because of variations such as list size, age of patients and environmental and health factors, as well as changes to the way in which moneys are allocated, it would be difficult to produce meaningful statistics for comparative purposes.

Secondary information