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 (a) recruit NHS dentists, (b) reduce the NHS dentistry appointment backlog and (c) standardise international dentistry qualifications.

In its ‘Advancing Dental Care Review’, Health Education made recommendations to address recruitment and retention into the National Health Service. These recommendations are being implemented through the Dental Education Reform Programme. NHS England and NHS Improvement have asked practices to deliver 100% of contracted units of dental activity and 100% of units of orthodontic activity to safely improve access for patients safely. We allocated an additional £50 million for NHS dentistry for the final quarter of 2021/22 to provide urgent care to patients and address the backlog. NHS England is also consulting the British Dental Association and other stakeholders on a range of improvements to the current contract which aim at increasing access for patients and reward dentists fairly for complex work.

The General Dental Council (GDC) the independent regulator responsible for assessing the skills, knowledge and experience of healthcare professionals seeking to join its register who qualified outside of the United Kingdom to ensure that standards of practice are met. The Department recently consulted on legislative changes which will provide the GDC with greater flexibility on alternative routes to registration for international applicants. Officials are analysing the responses received with the intention of publishing the Government’s response later this year. The GDC will then determine how best to utilise this increased flexibility.