Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to encourage ICBs to redistribute unallocated 'clawback' funding to NHS dental practices which are ready and able to deliver additional NHS care.

Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning National Health Service dental services to meet the needs of their local populations. NHS England encourages ICBs to make effective use of available dental funding, including the reinvestment of any unspent contractual funding where possible, to secure additional NHS dental activity and improve patient access. Decisions on the allocation of dental funding are a matter for individual ICBs, taking account of local circumstances and priorities.

NHS England expects local commissioners to manage dental contracts actively and responsively, working with dental providers to redistribute contracted activity where appropriate and to rebase consistently underperforming contracts, helping to maximise the delivery of NHS dental care and improve access for patients.