Investment in General Practice, 2014/15 to 2018/19, England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland

The Investment in General Practice report uses figures obtained from information from the financial reporting systems of the health departments of each country, and other published data on reimbursement and remuneration for dispensing activity. These are discussed and subsequently agreed by the Technical Steering Committee (TSC), which is chaired by NHS Digital and has representation from the Department of Health and Social Care, UK Health Departments, NHS England and NHS Improvement, NHS Employers and the British Medical Association (BMA), which represents the interests of GPs.

Information was provided to health departments by local providers in each of the countries, and therefore the accuracy of the original data lies with the organisations providing the data.

The Health Departments (NHS England and NHS Improvement, Welsh Government, Department of Health Northern Ireland and NHS Scotland) collated the data to provide national level figures, and the information was passed to NHS Digital.

Figures are an accurate summary of how investment and spend on General Practice has changed over time. Information is provided to health departments by local providers, e.g. CCGs, as part of their statutory accounts. Each country’s Health Department carefully checks the figures and are responsible for the accuracy of the data received.

All results received from each of the countries are validated at a high level by NHS Digital and any anomalies are highlighted and discussed with TSC.

The Investment in General Practice report collates data on investment and spend on General Practice to enable analysis by country. The publication meets these needs

Investment data are derived from different sources within the Health Departments across England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland and data categories are broadly comparable across countries.

Figures for England in the publication will not be the same as those in the NHS Payments to General Practice publications, which report only on cash payments made to GP Practices within the financial year. This is due to the inclusion of accruals, prepayments and other accounting adjustments and income from Local Authority Public Health Grants for the provision of public health services.

The report is published in September, approximately six months after the financial year-end.

This report is accessible via the NHS Digital website in Excel format, under Resources on the Overview page.

The data used within the publication are a secondary use of the data and so add no additional burden on NHS organisations. The data are obtained from administrative systems within each country.

All publications are subject to a standard NHS Digital risk assessment prior to issue. Disclosure control is implemented where judged necessary. The data contained in this publication are Official Statistics. The Code of Practice for Statistics is adhered to from collecting the data to publishing.