Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that patients affected by closures of NHS dental practices have adequate access to dental care.

NHS England and integrated care boards across England work together to ensure that patients who are affected by closure of National Health Service dental practices will continue to have access to the dental care they need. This includes an assessment to identify potential gaps in NHS dental service provision and to consider what actions may be required.

NHS dentists are required to keep their NHS.UK profiles up to date so that patients can find a dentist more easily. This includes information on whether they are accepting new patients.

In circumstances where patients are unable to access an urgent dental appointment directly through an NHS dental practice, they should contact NHS 111.