Support Representation

LMCs use our funding to gather the concerns and opinions of local GPs and take these views to meetings that inform national decisions about general practice.

LMCs represent local GPs’ views at a national level through representation on the General Practitioners Committee (GPC), and GPDF funds support this process to ensure that the voice and experience of General Practice is heard in meetings, committees and other situations.

A significant amount of GPDF’s annual expenditure is spent on the Deed of Grant, which is an arrangement with the British Medical Association (BMA) to ensure that GPs’ interests are both promoted and protected. It essentially funds the GPC, which is approximately half the amount, and the remainder pays for BMA costs to support that committee.

Via the Deed of Grant agreement, the GPDF provides a contribution towards funding the GPC honorarium for GPCs in England, Wales and Scotland and agrees the honorarium level with the BMA. 

Currently the BMA does not recompense or compensate attenders at committee and other meetings, for the first 12 meetings. Given the status of GPs as independent contractors or employees in small organisations, the BMA arrangement is a significant disincentive to GPs to become involved in this type of activity. Therefore, the GPDF currently provides a grant to BMA to remove any disincentive and to encourage GP engagement in representation activity.

Additionally, the Grant makes a further contribution towards the cost of the GPC Executive Teams (the Chair and Deputy Chairs for these three nation GPCs.