Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding he has allocated for additional dental appointments since 5 July 2024.

NHS England is responsible for issuing guidance to integrated care boards (ICBs) on dental budgets, including ringfences. NHS England’s Planning Guidance for 2025/26 sets out the funding available to ICBs and confirms that improving access to urgent dental appointments is a key national priority.

Dental contracts have been persistently underdelivering on National Health Service commitments, and the Government is focusing on action to enable all the available budget to be spent on dentistry.

The Government plans to tackle the challenges for patients trying to access NHS dental care with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to the areas that need them most. 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 NHS dentists.