Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to reduce dental appointment waiting lists created by cancellations and postponements due to the covid-19 outbreak; what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of waiting lists for NHS dental appointments on the cost of treatment where practices offer private appointments at higher rates.

National Health Service dentists have been asked to maximise safe care, focussing on urgent care and vulnerable groups followed by overdue appointments. This has been underpinned by the setting of activity thresholds for full payment of NHS contractual value. In addition, 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.