Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to establish mutual recognition schemes for dental qualifications with other countries.

The General Dental Council (GDC) is the independent regulator of dentistry in the United Kingdom. Only dentists and dental care professionals registered with the GDC can legally practise dentistry.

As an independent regulator, it is for the GDC to determine the standards that must be met by domestic and international applicants wishing to be added to the dental register. Changes to the GDC’s legislation made in 2023 enable it to apply a range of assessment options in determining whether international dentist applicants have the necessary knowledge, skills, and experience for practice in the UK. This includes the ability to recognise overseas dentistry diplomas.

The GDC is currently consulting on its 2026 to 2028 Corporate Strategy, in which it has stated that it will develop a comprehensive and accessible framework for registering overseas-qualified dental professionals, considering routes to registration in a holistic way. We will continue to encourage the GDC to make full use of the flexibilities that the 2023 legislation introduced when developing this framework.