Minimum Wage: National Insurance Contributions
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, following the announcement in the Budget on 30th October 2025 and its requirement for both the National Minimum Wage and employer National Insurance contributions to be increased, whether assurances will be given to General Practices nationally that they will be reimbursed for these increased costs.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock
Funding for general practice (GP) is agreed annually through consultation on the GP Contract, which considers wider cost pressures facing practices as part of the overall settlement. These funding decisions are informed by a range of factors, including independent recommendations from the Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration, where relevant, as well as affordability considerations. However, the GP Contract does not provide for automatic reimbursement of individual cost increases, including changes to National Insurance contributions or the National Minimum Wage.
In this context, we have uplifted the GP Contract by £601 million for 2026/27. This builds on last year’s £1.1 billion of investment, taking the two-year increase to £1.7 billion, or 13.8% in cash terms and 8.1% in real terms. Through consultation with stakeholders, we set these uplifts and changes to the contract with regard to the pressures faced by businesses. This includes the costs associated with the Government’s agreement to implement review body recommendations, including a 3.5% pay rise for GPs.
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