Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the equity of the level of the Annual Retention Fee practising dentists paid to the General Dentistry Council (a) during the covid-19 outbreak and (b) for the remainder of the 2020-21 financial year.

The General Dental Council (GDC) is an independent regulator and is therefore responsible for determining the level of the annual fee it charges for registration.

On 20 May 2020, the Chair of the GDC wrote to all registrants to advise that the GDC would not be making any changes to its Annual Retention Fee, or introducing an emergency payment by instalments scheme, in response to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The GDC uses the income from fees to carry out its statutory duties. In October 2019, the GDC reduced its Annual Retention Fee for all dental professionals following a strategic review of its operating processes and costs and a public consultation on its three-year costed plan.