Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to offer incentives to dental professionals to work in areas experiencing a shortage of dentists; and what steps he is planning to take to ensure adequate dental practice provision in those areas in each of the next five years.

The Department is exploring incentives for dental professionals to work in areas experiencing a shortage of dentists.

NHS England, regional teams and integrated care boards across England are working together to ensure that patients continue to have access to National Health Service dental care. This includes an assessment to identify potential gaps in NHS dental service provision and to consider what actions may be required.

In September 2022, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’ which sets out how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to NHS dental care, whilst making the NHS dental contract more attractive to dental practices. These changes are an important first step in improving the system. We know we need to do more and will announce further changes later this year.