Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the impact of recent NHS contract reforms on access to NHS dentistry in (a) West Dorset constituency and (b) other rural areas.

In July 2022, the first substantial changes to the National Health Service dental contract, since the 2006 Dental System Reforms, were made. These allowed the best performing practices to see more patients, specifically up to an extra 10% more activity, where commissioners have given agreement, and enabled commissioners to better manage consistently underperforming contracts. The changes provided increased remuneration for dentists treating patients with high needs and supported the use of increased skill mix in practices.

We will further reform the NHS contract to rebuild dentistry in the long term and increase access to NHS dental care, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.

There are no perfect payment models and careful consideration needs to be given to any potential changes to the complex dental system so that we deliver genuine improvements for patients and the profession.