Oral Answers to Questions

Claire Hazelgrove Excerpts

Tuesday 23rd July 2024 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Kinnock]

As my right hon. Friend the Health Secretary stated, on the Monday after the general election, he met the British Dental Association to look at a range of issues around the long-term NHS contract. That is an ongoing dialogue—it includes units of dental activity, of course—and we need to ensure that we have the negotiations rapidly. We will work at pace to address some of those long-term issues, but let us not forget that the Conservative party allowed the NHS contract to atrophy and took NHS dentistry to the brink of collapse in our country.

[Claire Hazelgrove (Filton and Bradley Stoke) (Lab)]

I congratulate my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and his fantastic team on taking their new place on the Government Front Bench. I also thank my right hon. Friend for his advocacy in the last Parliament for people across my constituency who lack dental access.

What assurances can the Minister provide that the important issues of infrastructure and housing will be linked together? As we look to build those much-needed 1.5 million homes across the country, it is vital to make sure that we do not have more dental deserts and that we have the infrastructure we need. How will he work in a cross-departmental way to ensure we achieve that?

[Stephen Kinnock]

I thank my hon. Friend for her question, and warmly welcome her to her place and congratulate her on her election. The key aspects of our dental rescue plan include 700,000 more appointments through extra funding that we will generate by cracking down on tax dodgers and closing other loopholes. We will incentivise new graduate dentists to come to areas that are underserved to ensure that we plug the gaps—there will be golden hellos to make that happen. We are also working hard on things like supervised toothbrushing for three to five-year-olds, because prevention is always better than cure.