Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to improve access to training for (a) dentists and (b) dental nurses in rural areas.

We are determined to rebuild National Health Service dentistry, but it will take time and there are no quick fixes. Strengthening the dental workforce, including dentists and dental nurses, is key to our ambitions.

We have launched a 10-Year Health Plan to reform the NHS, a central and core part of which will be our workforce. This summer we will publish a refreshed Long Term Workforce Plan to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade.

Integrated care boards have started to recruit posts through the Golden Hello scheme. This recruitment incentive will see up to 240 dentists receiving payments of £20,000 to work in those areas that need them most, for three years.

To rebuild dentistry in the long term, we will reform the dental contract with the sector, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.