Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to introduce permanent patient registration with NHS dental practices.

The Government has no current plans to introduce a system of patient registration for National Health Service dental practices.

Patients in England are not registered with an NHS dental practice, although many NHS dental practices do tend to see patients regularly, and some dental practices may operate local waiting list arrangements. There is no geographical restriction on which practice a patient may attend. NHS dentists are required to update their NHS website profiles at least every 90 days to ensure patients have up-to-date information on where they can access care.

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 per year. Integrated care boards have been making the extra appointments available from 1 April 2025. To rebuild dentistry in the long term and increase access to NHS dental care, we will reform the dental contract, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.