Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of dental workforce throughout the UK.

NHS England and NHS Improvement are responsible for commissioning primary care dentistry to meet local need. While available data suggests that the number of dentists providing NHS services in England is sufficient, the interim NHS People Plan commits to addressing geographic shortages.

We are working both on improving career pathways and the current dental contract. In the summer, Health Education England will publish the report of their ‘Advancing Dental Care’ programme which has explored opportunities for flexible dental training pathways and the Department will publish a report on the learning from dental contract reform programme.

The Department has asked NHS England and NHS Improvement to work with the British Dental Association to bring forward implementable proposals.