Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many emergency dental appointments have been delivered under the Urgent Dental Care Incentive Scheme in (a) Norfolk and Waveney and (b) North West Norfolk; and (b) what progress his Department has made on helping to deliver 21,520 additional urgent care appointments for Norfolk and Waveney ICB.

We have asked integrated care boards (ICBs) to commission extra urgent dental appointments to make sure that patients with urgent dental needs can get the treatment they require. ICBs have been making extra appointments available from April 2025.

These appointments are available across the country, with specific expectations for each region. These appointments are more heavily weighted towards those areas where they are needed the most. The Norfolk and Waveney ICB, which includes the North West Norfolk constituency, has been asked to deliver 21,520 additional urgent dental appointments as part of the scheme.

We are also incentivising high street dentists to offer even more appointments to maximise the availability to those in need of urgent care.

Data on delivery of urgent dental care, will be published annually as part of the NHS Dental Statistics England Official Statistics series. These statistics are released each August and are the primary source of data on the delivery of National Health Service dental care.