What your ICB and the CQC can ask about your website

Your ICB: the annual self-declaration

Every GP practice in England must complete the annual electronic self-declaration (eDEC) each year. NHS England says it uses the answers to check that practices are meeting their contractual requirements, and the ICB that commissions your practice receives the information for its delegated functions. A senior member of staff, usually the practice manager or a partner, signs it.

Some of its statements are about your website. In its assessment of compliance with the October 2025 contract changes, NHS England cites the eDEC statement that the practice has published a link to the patient charter, “You and Your GP”, on its website. The same page notes that eDEC answers are self-declared and not independently validated. That is the point: you are declaring that your website meets the contract, so it needs to be true on the day you sign.

The requirements themselves are in the contract regulations, for example regulation 73 on your online presence. Our website requirements guide lists every one, and the 2026/27 contract guide covers the three new ones.

The CQC: your rating on your website

Regulation 20A of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 requires every website maintained by or for a rated provider to show the CQC’s website address, where your most recent assessment can be found, your most recent overall rating and the date it was given. The CQC’s guidance on the regulation says it can prosecute a breach without first serving a warning notice. Our CQC rating guide explains how to show it and the free widget that keeps it current.

Accessibility: the law

The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 apply to GP practice websites. The Government Digital Service monitors public sector sites and explains what is required: meeting the accessibility standard and publishing an accessibility statement. Your supplier normally looks after the template and the practice after its own content, so both share the responsibility. See our accessibility statement guide.

The NHS England website audit

In May 2023 NHS England’s plan for recovering access to primary care asked every ICB to audit all of its practices’ websites with the GP website benchmarking and improvement tool during 2023/24 and agree an improvement plan. The duty was on ICBs, not practices, it was carried out differently in each area, and the 2024/25 update of the plan did not repeat it. If your practice never received a benchmark score, that is the usual position, not a gap on your part.

The benchmark is still the best public test of whether patients can use your website, which is why our free check scores it. But it is guidance; the contract, the CQC rule and the accessibility regulations are not.

What to have ready

• Every item from your practice leaflet on the website, as web pages, with opening times for each way to contact you.
• The three homepage links the contract requires: your online consultation tool, NHS 111 online and self-care information, and NHS England’s patient guide, “You and your general practice” (the eDEC calls it “You and Your GP”).
• Online registration for new patients, and your practice area.
• Your CQC rating, with the date and a link to your report.
• An accessibility statement, reviewed in the last year.
• GP net earnings for the last financial year, and a privacy notice reviewed this year.

Keep a dated record of when you last checked each one. If the ICB or an inspector asks, the answer is then a screenshot, not a scramble.