Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of new dentists joining the General Dental Council register last year have trained overseas, and in what way she expects that proportion to change in the next decade.

The Department does not hold United Kingdom registration data for dentists. Available data is published by the General Dental Council (GDC) at the following link:

https://www.gdc-uk.org/about-us/what-we-do/the-registers/registration-reports

The Government is increasing domestic training places whilst also supporting the expansion of international registration exam capacity.

Dental school places in England are increasing by 50, supported with around £11 million per year once the expansion is fully implemented. The 50 additional places have been allocated to the University of Portsmouth and the University of East Anglia, helping train more dentists in areas without existing Government-funded dental training places. All National Health Service regions now have a dental school.

Expansion of the Overseas Registration Examination and Licence in Dental Surgery is expected to significantly increase the number of overseas-qualified dentists eligible to register with the GDC from around 338 a year under previous arrangements to around 2,400 a year by 2028/29.

The future proportion of new registrants who have trained overseas will depend on the total numbers joining through both UK and international routes.