GP Locum Rates: What Sessions Pay, and What You Can Share

1. The short answer

There is no official GP locum rate. The BMA does not publish one, because recommending what self-employed locums should charge risks breaching competition law.

What you can do is find out what sessions actually pay. Locums are allowed to share the rate they charge a practice for NHS work, and the GP locum rates survey collects those anonymously and shows the ranges by region and kind of work.

You can also work out what a session needs to pay for you. The salaried GP pay range, worked through in section 5, comes to roughly £199 to £300 per session actually worked in England in 2026/27, before any of the costs a locum carries and a salaried GP does not.

2. Why nobody will tell you the going rate

Competition law stops businesses agreeing prices between themselves. A self-employed locum is a business, so a group of locums agreeing a minimum fee, or a professional body telling them what to charge, can look like price fixing.

The BMA's position, from its guidance on competition law and locum GPs:

• The NHS itself is not subject to competition law, so a sole-trader locum sharing what they charge a practice for NHS work is not a breach.
• Agencies, chambers, partnerships and limited companies are different. There is a market of locum agencies, so the BMA says it cannot safely advise on the rates locums who are not employed should work at, in case that distorts competition between those providers.
• Private work is subject to competition law, and the BMA cannot suggest prices for it.

That is why the BMA's own fee guidance lists what to take into account when setting a fee, but gives no figures.

3. What you can and cannot share

The practical rules, as the BMA sets them out:

Booking platforms such as Lantum are not agencies. On a platform like Lantum you set your own rate, contract with the practice directly as a sole trader, and invoice the practice yourself, which is also why the work is pensionable when agency work is not. That is direct NHS work, so the sharing rules above apply to it. The BMA's guidance does not name platforms, so this is how the arrangement fits its categories rather than something it has ruled on. If a service employs you, or bills the practice and pays you out of that, treat it as an agency.

The difference the BMA draws is between information and agenda. "I work at a surgery in X and charge £Y a session" is information. "I charge £Y, and none of us should accept less" is an agreement, and the second half is the problem.

If a locum group you are in starts discussing a shared minimum, that is the moment to step back from the conversation.

4. What locums report being paid

The GP locum rates survey is built around those rules. Locums add one NHS session they have already worked and been paid for, booked directly as a sole trader (including through a booking platform such as Lantum), and see the results straight away.

• Anonymous. No name, email or practice is collected.
• Grouped. Figures appear only for groups of at least five sessions, as the range where the middle half of sessions fall, per hour and per 4 hour 10 minute session.
• Comparable. The employer pension is taken out of every figure, so a rate quoted "inclusive" and one quoted "plus pension" can sit in the same range.
• Current. Only sessions worked in the last 12 months count.

It leaves out agency, chambers and limited company work, and private work, for the reasons in section 3. The results describe what people who took part were paid. They are not a recommended rate.

Paid surveys exist too: GP Business and GPonline run an annual survey of locum rates by area, available to their subscribers.

5. The salaried pay range as a yardstick

The one published figure for what a GP session is worth is the salaried GP pay range, uplifted each year following the DDRB. For 2026/27 it is:

Those are full-time salaries. Turning one into the equivalent of a locum's per-session fee takes three steps, shown here for England.

1. Per weekly session. The BMA model contract treats full time as nine sessions of 4 hours 10 minutes. £78,699 ÷ 9 = £8,744 a year for each weekly session, and £118,759 ÷ 9 = £13,195.

2. Allow for paid leave. A full-time salaried GP on the model contract gets 30 days' annual leave plus 10 bank holidays and statutory days: eight weeks, paid. So the salary is earned over about 44 working weeks.

3. Per session actually worked. £8,744 ÷ 44 = about £199, and £13,195 ÷ 44 = about £300.

So a salaried GP on the range earns roughly £199 to £300 for each session they actually work, with their leave already paid for. The employer pension is on top of that for both roles, so it is left out of the comparison.

That figure is a floor for comparison, not a locum rate, because a salary comes with things a locum pays for or goes without. The salaried vs locum calculator does this comparison at any number of sessions and weeks off.

6. What a locum rate has to cover that a salary doesn't

Set against a salaried GP on the same session count, a locum's fee has to pay for:

• Leave. No holiday pay and no bank holidays. Every week off is a week unpaid.
• Sickness. No sick pay. A week in bed is a week with no income.
• Study leave and CPD. Unpaid time, plus course fees.
• Indemnity costs. Often covered by employers, which a locum must fund.
• Running a business. An accountant, insurance, a phone and laptop, and the time spent invoicing, chasing payment and filing pension forms.
• Gaps between bookings. Weeks when there is less work than you wanted.
• Tax timing. Payments on account, and from April 2026 Making Tax Digital quarterly updates for many locums.

None of these has a standard price, which is why two locums with the same experience can reasonably charge different rates. The session rate calculator works backwards from the take-home pay you want, through your own expenses, weeks off, tax and pension, to the rate you would need.

7. What legitimately moves a rate

The BMA's guidance on deciding a locum fee lists factors worth weighing for each booking, and each is a reason for a fee to differ:

• Workload. How many patients are booked, home visits, and whether results, letters and prescriptions are part of the session.
• The patients. A high-need or particularly vulnerable population.
• Familiarity. Whether you know the practice, its clinical system and its processes.
• Support. Whether partners or other clinicians are on site, and how well staffed the practice is.
• Length. A typical locum session is around 3 hours with 12 to 15 patients. Anything longer, more patients, or extra admin afterwards, is worth agreeing up front.
• Experience and skills. Postgraduate qualifications and years as a GP.

To those most locums add timing and setting: short-notice cover, weekends and evenings, and out-of-hours or urgent care work are often priced differently from a routine booked session.

The employer pension is the practice's to pay, on top of your fee. If you pension the work, the practice owes an employer contribution of 14.38% on 90% of the fee, which is 12.94% of the fee. The BMA's guidance for practices says this is a statutory requirement, paid on top of the locum's fee, and that a practice must not cut a locum's fee just to avoid paying it. Some locums still quote an all-in figure "including pension"; that only works as a lower fee with the contribution added on top, not as the practice keeping part of your fee. On a £400 session the difference between the two is about £52. Put the basis on the booking and the invoice, and see the locum pension guide for how it flows through Form A and Form B.

8. Common questions

Can I post my rate in a locum Facebook or WhatsApp group? For NHS work you do as a sole trader, yes. The BMA says sharing the rate you charge an existing practice is fine, in any format, as long as it is for information and within the group's own rules. Don't add that others should charge the same or more.

Why won't anyone just tell me the going rate? Because a professional body recommending what self-employed locums should charge risks the competition-law problem in section 2. What you can get is other locums' own rates for NHS work, shared for information, which is what the survey collects.

Is it illegal for locums in an area to agree a minimum rate? The BMA warns that an agreement between locums to work for no less than a certain amount in an area or setting may breach competition law, and that anyone involved could face legal proceedings.

I work through an agency. Can I share my rate? The BMA advises not, because there is not enough case law to say it is safe. It is also why the survey does not record agency sessions.

Does Lantum count as an agency? No. Lantum and similar platforms are booking platforms: you set your rate, contract with the practice directly as a sole trader and invoice it yourself, and the work is pensionable, which agency work is not. Sessions booked that way count as direct NHS work, in this guide and in the survey. See section 3.

What is a session? There is no fixed definition for locum work. A typical locum session is around 3 hours with 12 to 15 patients, though it varies by practice. The BMA model contract uses 4 hours 10 minutes as a notional session for salaried GPs, which is the unit the survey results use so different session lengths can be compared. Agree the length, the number of patients and what admin is included when you book.

Should my rate include the employer pension? The contribution is legally the practice's cost, not yours. The BMA says practices pay it on top of the locum's fee as a statutory requirement, and must not reduce a fee just to avoid it. Some locums quote an all-in figure anyway, which in effect sets a lower fee. Whichever you use, agree it when booking and show the fee and the employer contribution separately on the invoice. See section 7.

9. Sources

• Competition law and locum GPs, BMA, updated 9 September 2026: what locums can share, and the position for third-party providers and private work.
• Employing locum GPs and deciding their fee, BMA: the factors to weigh when setting a fee.
• Locum pension contributions: guide for GP practices, BMA: the employer contribution as a statutory cost paid on top of the fee.
• Locum pensions guide, Lantum: how sessions booked through the platform are direct and pensionable.
• Salaried GP pay ranges, BMA, updated 14 August 2026: the 2026/27 figures for England and Wales.
• Salaried GPs handbook, BMA: the model contract's full-time sessions and leave.

This guide is general information, not legal or financial advice, and not a recommended rate. For a specific competition-law question the BMA runs an advice service for members.