Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy to require dentists to spend 50 per cent of their time working for the NHS for the first five years after they qualify.

There are currently no plans to do so. Health Education England’s ‘Advancing Dental Care Review’, published in September 2021, made recommendations to address recruitment, retention and attract newly qualified dentists into the National Health Service. These recommendations will be implemented through the Dental Education Reform Programme.

The Department and NHS England and NHS Improvement are negotiating with the British Dental Association on reforms to the dental contract to ensure that working in the NHS is more attractive for new dentists.