Sir Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) full-time and (b) part-time general practitioners there were in each of the last 15 years for which figures are available. [201965]

Dr Poulter, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Health: The requested information is shown in the following table.

¹ There is no definition of what constitutes part-time working on the latest GP contract, figures provided indicates GPs with a full-time equivalent (FTE) greater than or equal to 1. Data as at 30 September for each year except 1999 as at 1 October. FTE calculations on the GP census are based on an FTE of 1.0 being 37.5 hours a week. For 1999 to 2003 contracted GPs—full time 1.00 FTE; three quarter time 0.69 FTE; job share 0.65 FTE; and half time 0.60 FTE; other GP types—full time 1.00 FTE; part time 0.6 FTE. For 2004-05 all GPs—full Time 1.0 FTE; part time 0.6 FTE. For 2006-13 FTE figures have been collected based on the number of sessions, hours or percentage each GP works. Therefore time series data may not be fully comparable with data from before 2006. ² The new headcount methodology from 2010 onwards means this data is not fully comparable with previous years, due to improvements that make it a more stringent count of absolute staff numbers. Further information on the headcount methodology is available in the census publication. Headcount totals are unlikely to equal the sum of components. FTE figures prior to 2010 are categorised based on the FTE attributed to each contract, in line with the headcount methodology at that time. 2010-13 data has been calculated using the sum of the FTE for each individual person, as per the latest headcount methodology.