Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve access to NHS dental care for patients unable to register with a local practice in Surrey Heath constituency.

Patients in England are not registered with a National Health Service dental practice, although many NHS dental practices do tend to see patients regularly. There is no geographical restriction on which practice a patient may attend. Some dental practices may operate local waiting list arrangements.

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

The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including NHS dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to the integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. For the Surrey Heath constituency, this is the NHS Surrey Heartlands ICB. ICBs have been asked to start making extra urgent dental appointments available from April 2025. The Surrey Heartlands ICB is expected to deliver 6,585 additional urgent dental appointments as part of the scheme.

As a first step to reforming the dental contract, we are consulting on a package of changes to improve access to, and improve the quality of, NHS dentistry, which will deliver improved care for the diverse oral health needs of people across England. A link to the consultation is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/nhs-dentistry-contract-quality-and-payment-reforms

The consultation was launched on 8 July 2025 and will close on 19 August 2025.