Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he plans to take to improve public oral health education in rural areas.

In England, local authorities are responsible for assessing the oral health needs, developing oral health strategies, and commissioning oral health improvement programmes for their local area. We have also published evidence-based resources for dental teams on preventive advice to improve their patients’ oral health. This is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/delivering-better-oral-health-an-evidence-based-toolkit-for-prevention

We will be implementing a national targeted supervised toothbrushing programme to children aged three, four, and five years old living in our most deprived communities.