Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people are unable to access an NHS dentist in their local area; and what plans he has to ensure everyone can access an NHS dentist locally for routine care.

The GP Patient Survey from March 2020 indicates that in the previous year, of 334,181 patients, 5% or 16,709, were unable to access a National Health Service dental appointment.

In light of the impact of COVID-19, NHS dentists have been asked to maximise safe throughput to meet as many prioritised needs as possible, focussing first on urgent care and vulnerable groups, followed by overdue appointments. NHS England and NHS Improvement have provided a flexible commissioning toolkit to local commissioners to help focus the available capacity on those that need it most and to reduce oral health inequalities.

We are working with NHS England and NHS Improvement and Public Health England to increase access, including for routine care, taking into account the ongoing infection prevention and control and social distancing requirements. For the longer term, the Department has asked NHS England and NHS Improvement to work with the British Dental Association, to build on the learning from the dental contract reform programme and bring forward proposals to address the key challenges facing the delivery of NHS dentistry and improve patient access.