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 reduce NHS dental waiting lists.

Patients do not routinely join National Health Service dental waiting lists and are only registered with a dental practice for a course of treatment.

In July 2022, we announced a package of reforms to improve access to NHS dentistry. This included changes to banding of courses of treatments and the introduction of a minimum Units of Dental Activity value.

From 1 April 2023, responsibility for commissioning primary care dentistry to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to all integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. ICBs are responsible for having local processes in place to involve patient groups, and for undertaking oral health needs assessments, to identify areas of need and determine the priorities for investment.

We will shortly announce our Dental Recovery Plan, which will address how we continue to improve access, particularly for new patients, and how we make NHS work more attractive to ensure NHS dentists are incentivised to deliver more NHS care.