Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the (a) level and (b) quality of the provision of dentistry services by the NHS.

NHS England has a legal duty to commission National Health Service dental services to meet the needs of the local population and to help patients who cannot find a local dentist.

Nationally, access to NHS primary care dental services remains high. In the 24 month period ending 30 June 2018, 22.1 million adults were seen by an NHS dentist and in the 12 month period ending 30 June 2018, 6.9 million children were seen by an NHS dentist.

The January to March 2017 general practitioner patient survey results were published in July 2018. These showed that 59% of adults questioned had tried to get an NHS dental appointment in the past two years and of those trying to get an appointment, 93% were successful.

Access has improved greatly over recent years but we know inequalities remain.

The Department and NHS England are continuing to test a new way of providing NHS dental services which aims to further improve oral health and increase access. NHS England’s Starting Well programme is also aiming to improve access for young children, most at risk of tooth decay, who are not currently under the care of a dentist.

In respect of the quality of NHS dental services the Care Quality Commission inspects NHS dental practices against set standards and the General Dental Council is responsible for individuals’ professional standards. In addition to this the dental contract reform programme is testing a Dental Quality and Outcomes Framework which will be used to drive standards up even further.