Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she will take steps to promote the recruitment of dentists from overseas by the NHS.

There are no plans to promote the recruitment of dentists from overseas by the National Health Service.

The Government is currently making changes to the General Dental Council’s (GDC) international registration legislation which will allow the GDC greater flexibility to improve its existing international registration process and introduce alternative routes to registration for international applicants whilst maintaining its focus on robust public protection. We are aiming to introduce these changes by the end of 2022, subject to the Parliamentary process and time.