Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support his Department has provided to increase the availability of NHS dental appointments in Warrington in the last 12 months.

In September 2022, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which outlines how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to dental care, including in Warrington. These will increase access to NHS dentistry whilst making the NHS dental contract more attractive to dental practices.

We have taken action to implement these changes, including through regulations that came into effect on 25th November 2022. The changes include a contractual requirement for NHS dentists to keep their NHS.UK profiles up to date, adherence to risk-based recall intervals, and enabling dentists to make better use of their team resources. The contractual changes of 28th December 2022 also provide for the commissioning of 110% of contracted Units of Dental Activities so that practices can deliver more NHS care, particularly in those areas where NHS dentistry is less prevalent.

NHS England is holding further discussions with the British Dental Association and other stakeholders for additional reforms of the NHS Dental System planned to take place in 2023