Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to review the Units of Dental Activity system.

We are aware of the challenges faced in accessing a dentist, particularly in more rural and coastal areas. To rebuild dentistry in the long term, we will reform the dental contract with the sector, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of National Health Service dentists. There are no perfect payment systems and careful consideration needs to be given to any potential changes to the complex dental system so that we deliver a system better for patients and the profession.

The NHS in England invests £3 billion into dentistry every year. NHS England is responsible for issuing guidance to integrated care boards (ICBs) on dental budgets.

NHS England’s Planning Guidance for 2025/26 has now been published and sets out the funding available to ICBs. Planning guidance also confirms that improving access to urgent dental appointments is a key national priority. Dental budgets are ringfenced and NHS England reserves the right to direct unused resources, if contractors are unable to deliver on NHS dental commitments.

In July 2022, the first substantial changes to the NHS dental contract, since the 2006 Dental System Reforms, were made. These changes included allowing the best performing practices to see more patients where commissioners have given agreement, with up to 10% extra activity. Furthermore, the minimum value for a Unit of Dental Activity was uplifted to £28 from April 2024, benefitting 876 contracts.