Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to increase the allocation of new dental school places.

The Government will provide £11 million per annum at steady state, to increase the number of new dental school places by 50 each year. This is the first sustained expansion of domestic dental training places since 2007 and will take effect from the 2027/28 academic year.

The Minister of State for Skills and I have written to the Chair of the Office for Students (OfS) to increase the maximum fundable limit for dental school places in England from 809 to 859 places. The OfS has statutory responsibility for allocating funding for dental school places. The Minister of State for Skills and I have asked that the OfS focuses the expansion on new dental schools approved by the General Dental Council, but which do not currently receive government funding for places.