Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to increase the number of dental practices that accept new NHS patients in Knowsley constituency.

The Government will tackle the immediate crisis with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and to recruit new dentists to the areas that need them most. To rebuild dentistry in the long term, we will reform the dental contract, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of National Health Service dentists. NHS dentists are required to update their NHS.UK website profiles at least every 90 days, to ensure patients have up-to-date information on where they can access care.

The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including NHS dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to the integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. For the Knowsley constituency, this is the NHS Cheshire and Merseyside ICB.