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 develop a long-term strategy to ensure sustainable access to NHS dental services for all people; and how this strategy will be implemented.

The Government is committed to tackling the challenges for patients trying to access National Health Service dental care with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and to recruit new dentists to areas that need them most. To rebuild dentistry in the long term, we will reform the dental contract, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists. We are continuing to meet the British Dental Association and other representatives of the dental sector to discuss how we can best deliver our shared ambition to improve access for NHS dental patients.