Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jonathan Brash and Stephen Kinnock

Tuesday 13th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Mr Jonathan Brash (Hartlepool) (Lab)]

T8. Currently, not a single NHS dentist in Hartlepool is taking on new patients, and many of my constituents are desperate. We have made real progress on urgent care, including a new urgent dental access centre, but it is not enough. What more will be done to fix NHS dentistry in Hartlepool and across the country?

[Stephen Kinnock]

My hon. Friend is right that, although we are making progress on urgent treatment with the urgent dental access centre that he mentioned, there is a real challenge with new routine care in Hartlepool. We are looking to improve that unacceptable situation, which we inherited, by offering dentists £20,000 to work in underserved areas and making it a requirement for new dentists to practise in the NHS. However, he is right to point out that the situation is not acceptable and we have to improve it.