Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he plans to take through the NHS Long-Term Workforce Plan to reduce vacancy rates for Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons.

The Department does not hold information on the vacancy rate for Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon training posts or consultant positions.

We will publish a refreshed workforce plan to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade, and treat patients on time again. We will ensure the National Health Service has the right people, in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the care patients need, when they need it.

NHS England publishes quarterly NHS hospital trust vacancy and job advert data. The publication sets out vacancy rates for total NHS staff and, separately, for registered nurses and doctors at a national and regional level. The latest data for December 2024 shows the vacancy rate for doctors was 5.2%. The data is not detailed enough to identify vacancy rates for Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon consultants. Further information is available at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-vacancies-survey