Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what progress has been made on the rollout of a new contract to dental care providers.

The Department is working in conjunction with NHS England to test a prototype new dental contract with an increased focus on prevention. The remuneration system is designed to better support dentists to prevent as well as treat disease and maintain the numbers of patients they care for.

The trial of the new clinical and remuneration approach began in April 2016 with prototype practices across England testing the new way of working. The scheme is being evaluated and the substantive report on the scheme to date is expected to be available later this year. Decisions on next steps and any wider roll out will be based on the learning from the prototype scheme.