Dental Services: Lancashire
(asked on 27th February 2026) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS dental appointments have been a) delivered and b) cancelled in i) Preston and ii) Lancashire in the last 3 years.
The following table shows the number of National Health Service dental treatments delivered in the first seven months of the 2025/26 financial year, in the Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board, which includes Preston and Lancashire:
Financial year | Number of NHS dental treatments delivered in the first 7 months of the financial year |
2025/26 | 754,599 (partial year) |
Source: Monthly National Dental Activity data – England July 2023 to October 2025, available at the following link:
https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/dental-activity-data-england-july-2023-to-october-2025
In addition, the following table shows the available data for the number of NHS dental treatments delivered in 2023/24 and 2024/25 in the Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board:
Financial year | Number of NHS dental treatments delivered |
2024/2025 | 1,197,410 |
2023/2024 | 1,113,655 |
Source: Dental statistics for England for 2023/24 and 2024/25, available at the following link:
https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/statistical-collections/dental-england/dental-statistics-england-202425
Data for dentistry is measured in courses of treatment, not appointments. One course of treatment can be more than one appointment. Data on the number of NHS dental appointments cancelled is not held.
The data for 2023/24 and 2024/25 are not directly comparable with the 2025/26 data due to the 2025/26 data being provisional. Final data for 2025/26 will be published in August 2026. Furthermore, the 2025/26 data covers seven months of activity, but the 2023/24 and 2024/25 data covers the full 12-month period.