Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to increase capacity in (a) dental and (b) orthodontic healthcare provision.

We allocated an additional £50 million for National Health Service dentistry was provided for the final quarter of 2021/22 to provide urgent care to patients. 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.

The Department and NHS England and NHS Improvement are working with stakeholders, including the British Dental Association, on improvements to the NHS dental system. Negotiations are currently underway on initial measures, which aim to improve access to NHS dentistry.