Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has plans to improve access to NHS dentistry in Lancaster and Fleetwood constituency.

Our Dentistry Recovery Plan will build upon the first package of reforms agreed in July 2022, which included changes to banding and the introduction of a minimum Units of Dental Activity value. Our plan will include addressing how we continue to improve access, particularly for new patients, and how we make National Health Service work more attractive to ensure dentists are incentivised to deliver NHS care.

In Lancaster and Fleetwood constituency, the local integrated care board is currently working on a dental access and oral health improvement programme, which aims to address the current challenges facing NHS dental services.

The dental access and oral health improvement programme recognises that prevention is key to keep the population orally healthy and targets resources at those facing the greatest health inequalities.