Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department are taking to reduce NHS orthodontic waiting times.

National Health Service orthodontists’ providers have been asked to maximise safe throughput to meet as many prioritised needs as possible. This has been underpinned by an activity threshold for full payment of contractual value which has been increased to 80% of pre-pandemic orthodontic activity levels for care delivered between April to September 2021. This is in order to facilitate access for a greater number of patients, whilst also accounting for the impact of ongoing requirements for infection, prevention and control.