I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for his dedicated work to pass the Down Syndrome Act. I thank him also for highlighting World Down Syndrome Day, and we will host a reception in No. 10 to mark the occasion. As he knows, when the grounds for abortion were amended, Parliament agreed that doctors were best placed to make those difficult decisions with women and their families. He also knows that it is a long-standing convention that it is for Parliament to decide whether to make any changes to the law on abortion. These issues have always been treated as an individual matter of conscience.

The Delivery plan for recovering access to primary care, published by NHS England in May 2023, set out actions on how bureaucracy and workload can be cut by improving the interface between primary and secondary care, cutting unnecessary burdens on general practitioners (GPs) through the Bureaucracy Busting Concordat, published in August 2022, and streamlining the Investment and Impact Fund from 36 to five indicators from 2023/24.

In response to feedback from the profession to make incentive schemes more streamlined and focused, the Department has launched a public consultation on incentive schemes in general practice.

The expanded primary care teams funded through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme add extra clinical capacity, helping to reduce the burden on GPs.

The Delivery plan for recovering access to primary care, published by NHS England in May 2023, set out actions on how bureaucracy and workload can be cut by improving the interface between primary and secondary care, cutting unnecessary burdens on general practitioners (GPs) through the Bureaucracy Busting Concordat, published in August 2022, and streamlining the Investment and Impact Fund from 36 to five indicators from 2023/24.

In response to feedback from the profession to make incentive schemes more streamlined and focused, the Department has launched a public consultation on incentive schemes in general practice.

The expanded primary care teams funded through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme add extra clinical capacity, helping to reduce the burden on GPs.

We intend to publish updates to the existing NPPF later in 2023 after considering comments received from our December 2022 consultation.

I agree wholeheartedly with my right hon. Friend on that and thank him for what he says. I know that his advice will continue to be of value to the Government as we find a way for a peaceful, more secure future for everyone living in the region.

Businesses are not required to provide figures at a product level within their VAT returns, as this would impose an excessive administrative burden.

The information requested is therefore not available.

The following table shows the headcount number of managers in the National Health Service with total earnings of over the requested amounts in the 12 months to the end of March 2023, the latest period available. These are total earnings, which include non-basic-pay elements such as overtime, geographic allowances, or on-call payments, though these will not make a significant part of managers earnings.

Source: NHS England Digital Earnings Statistics

Notes:

1. Data is sourced from the ESR, which is the Human Resources and Payroll system used throughout secondary care by organisations in the HCHS. It includes staff working for NHS trusts, NHS foundation trusts, integrated care boards and central and support organisations in England.
2. Data covers people in the staff groups of ‘managers’ and ‘senior managers’ as defined by their NHS Occupation Code. All managers/senior managers who need to be a qualified doctor, qualified nurse, qualified therapist, qualified scientist, or trained ambulance personnel should be coded in their professional staff group, for example as a nurse and are not included in these figures.
3. If an individual worked in more than one managerial role over the course of the year the earnings are summed to give a person level total. Earnings for roles outside of management are not included.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

A response to the Hon gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 1 September is attached.

The table below shows the number of full-time general practice staff who were male and female in September 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2020. Data is not broken down by gender for all practice staff for 2000 and 1995.

Source: https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/general-and-personal-medical-services

Notes

1. Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) refers to the proportion of full-time contracted hours that the post holder is contracted to work. 1 would indicate they work a full set of hours (37.5), 0.5 that they worked half time. For GPs in Training Grades’ contracts 1 FTE = 40 hours and in this table these FTEs have been converted to the standard wMDS measure of 1 FTE = 37.5 hours for consistency.

1. Figures shown do not include staff working in prisons, army bases, educational establishments, specialist care centres including drug rehabilitation centres, walk-in centres and other alternative settings outside of traditional general practice such as urgent treatment centres and minor injury units.
2. Data from September 2015 onwards was collected using a new methodology and should therefore not be directly compared with data from before September 2015. Figures from September 2015 should be treated with caution as the data submission rates under the new methodology from practices were appreciably lower than for subsequent reporting periods. This means that the reported figures for the early years of the collection may be lower than the true picture. In September 2015, which was the first extract from the new Workforce Minimum Data Set, only three of four Health Education England regions submitted data.
3. It is not recommended that comparisons be made between quarterly or monthly figures (e.g. Mar 16 to Sept 16) due to the unknown effect of seasonality on workforce numbers. Any such comparisons should therefore be treated with extreme caution.
4. Figures from earlier collections (September 2005 to September 2015) should be treated with caution as the data submission rates from practices were appreciably lower than for subsequent reporting periods. This means that the reported figures for the early years of the collection may be lower than the true picture.

The table below shows the number full-time equivalent GPs were active in 2020, 2015, 2005, 2000 and 1995.

Source: https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/general-and-personal-medical-services

Notes

1. Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) refers to the proportion of full-time contracted hours that the post holder is contracted to work. 1 would indicate they work a full set of hours (37.5), 0.5 that they worked half time. For GPs in Training Grades’ contracts 1 FTE = 40 hours and in this table these FTEs have been converted to the standard wMDS measure of 1 FTE = 37.5 hours for consistency.
2. Figures shown do not include staff working in prisons, army bases, educational establishments, specialist care centres including drug rehabilitation centres, walk-in centres, and other alternative settings outside of traditional general practice such as urgent treatment centres and minor injury units.

1. Data from September 2015 onwards was collected using a new methodology and should therefore not be directly compared with data from before September 2015. Figures from September 2015 should be treated with caution as the data submission rates under the new methodology from practices were appreciably lower than for subsequent reporting periods. This means that the reported figures for the early years of the collection may be lower than the true picture. In September 2015, which was the first extract from the new Workforce Minimum Data Set, only three of four Health Education England regions submitted data.
2. It is not recommended that comparisons be made between quarterly or monthly figures (e.g. Mar 16 to Sept 16) due to the unknown effect of seasonality on workforce numbers. Any such comparisons should therefore be treated with extreme caution.
3. Figures from earlier collections (September 2005 to September 2015) should be treated with caution as the data submission rates from practices were appreciably lower than for subsequent reporting periods. This means that the reported figures for the early years of the collection may be lower than the true picture.

Following any period of strike action, NHS England publish data on their website on the impact of industrial action. This sets out the number of staff absent as a result of industrial action, and the number of procedures and appointments rescheduled. The data do not include the impact on waiting lists. The data is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/preparedness-for-potential-industrial-action-in-the-nhs/

My right hon. Friend is quite right to highlight the improvement in our economic outlook and the good, positive news showing the strength in the underlying economy. I know that he joins me in saying that our economic priority right now must be to continue to bear down on inflation, but while we do that, we are putting in place the conditions to grow the economy. As he said, unlike the Labour party, we will not talk Britain down; we will grow the country’s jobs.

The number of dismissals in the Civil Service for each of the last 10 years are shown in the table below. The number of dismissals for the year ending 31 March 2023 are scheduled for release on 26 July 2023 as part of the National Statistics bulletin Civil Service Statistics 2023. The number of staff leaving, by leaving cause, is published as one of the standard tables and all of the dismissal data presented in the answer is already in the public domain.

Table 1: Number of dismissals in the Civil Service, 2012/13 to 2021/22

Source: Annual Civil Service Employment Survey, Cabinet Office

Figures rounded to nearest 10

As the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have noted, it is not possible to precisely isolate the impact of strike action on GDP from other factors across the wider economy.

The Government remains committed to minimising the disruption caused by strike action and encouraging the resolution of industrial disputes as quickly as reasonably possible.

The Government will listen to all unions who are willing to discuss what is fair and reasonable – recognising the vital role public sector workers play but also the wider economic pressures facing the UK. As a condition for talks, we expect unions to call off any planned strike action.

For example, following intensive talks between the Government and Agenda for Change unions, the Government have put forward a fair and generous pay offer which Agenda for Change unions are now balloting their members on, with most unions recommending that their members vote to accept.

The following information has been provided by the single Services.

Naval Service

The table below shows the average time taken (in days) between receipt of application and interview date between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023.

Notes:

1. Figures are a single service estimate and have not been validated by Analysis (Navy). Figures may not be reflective of Official Statistics. These figures cannot be compared to previously published application figures.
2. The recruitment system changed in April last year so it has not been possible to align with information on the Joint Personnel Administration system. That also means the three services may not be aligned in what has been provided. Therefore, Royal Navy application data cannot be compared to Army or Royal Air Force.
3. The selection process for Officers has been revised significantly over the last year, therefore it is not possible to derive any meaningful data for this population. Figures for Officers have not been supplied and therefore are not included in the Total.
4. Average time taken is calculated as Mean days between application receipt and a date set for interview, where interview dates were set between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023.

British Army

The table below shows the total applications and Time of Flight Average from Application to Army Brief and Individual Candidate Discussion, by stream.

Notes:

1. Averages have been calculated using data from 1 April 2022 to 1 March 2023 and have been calculated using the mean.
2. Each service has a different set of intake pathways and representative calculations have necessarily been made using the following parameters for Army: time taken from application to the Army Brief and Individual Candidate Discussion.
3. There are several variables that may impact the time it takes to progress through the recruitment pipeline, including but are not limited to, timely individual participation in the recruitment process, medical/fitness issues, aptitude testing success, and availability of training places.
4. The recruitment process for Officers can take significantly longer given that candidates can go to university between application and arriving at The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.

Royal Air Force (RAF)

The table below shows the average time (in days) between application and first interview for the RAF Regular and Reserve Forces in recruiting year 2022-23.

Notes:

1. Figures are a single service estimate and have not been validated by Analysis (RAF). Figures may not be reflective of Official Statistics. These figures cannot be compared to previously published application figures.
2. Averages have been calculated using data from 1 April 2022 to 1 March 2023 and have been calculated using the mean.