Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has plans to reimburse the fixed practice overheads of dentists to allow them to close their dental practices to non-essential services to prevent the transmission of covid-19.

Dentists holding a contract to provide NHS dental services are remunerated through an annual contract value dependent on delivery of an agreed amount of treatment (activity). There is no separate reimbursement of practice costs apart from rates reimbursement.

NHS England are in discussion with the British Dental Association about how the impact of coronavirus on service delivery will be managed.

On 20 March 2020, the Chancellor announced the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to help firms continue to keep people in employment. The scheme will apply to dental practices.