Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of NHS dental provision in the City of York area.

No such assessment has been made.

National Health Service dentists throughout the country have been asked to focus on urgent care and vulnerable groups followed by overdue appointments. This has been underpinned by the requirement for dental providers to deliver 60% of normal activity volumes for the first six months of 2020/21 for full payment of the NHS contractual value. As dental activity increases, a new flexible commissioning initiative will be relaunched in the City of York for dental providers this financial year, which in conjunction with a flexible commissioning toolkit introduced by NHS England and NHS Improvement, will allow available capacity to be focused on those that need it most and increase access for patients.

In circumstances where patients are unable to access an urgent dental appointment directly through a NHS dental practice, they are advised to call NHS 111 who will assist in booking an appointment at one of over 100 designated urgent care centres, which continue to stay open across Yorkshire and the Humber.