General Practitioners: Training

The number of general practice (GP) training places for the past four years has been 4,001. From September 2025, we are increasing GP training places to 4,500 as part of a broader plan to expand training further by 2031. This increase is part of a larger National Health Service workforce plan to address projected GP shortages.

This increase in GP training places will help to grow the number of appointments delivered by GPs and will benefit thousands of patients. It will also secure the future supply of GPs and take pressure off those currently working in the system.

We are investing an additional £889 million in GPs to reinforce 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 General Practitioners Committee England is supportive of the contract changes. Alongside the 2025/26 GP contract announcement, the Government has also committed to reform of the GP contract within this Parliament.

The changes to the contract will improve services for patients and make progress towards the Government’s Health Mission, supporting the three key shifts the Government wants to achieve, from analogue to digital, from sickness to prevention, and from hospital to community care. The following table shows the number of accepted GP training places in September of each year, from 2021 to 2025:

From June 2021 to June 2025, there has also been an increase of 2,475 GPs in the training stage. The following table shows the number of GPs in training grade in June of each year, from 2021 to 2025: