Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps he has taken to improve access to NHS dentistry in (a) Newcastle-under-Lyme and (b) Staffordshire.

The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including National Health Service dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. For Newcastle-under-Lyme constituency, this is Staffordshire and Stoke-on Trent ICB.

We will deliver 700,000 extra urgent dental appointments per year, and ICBs have been making extra appointments available from 1 April 2025. Staffordshire and Stoke-on Trent ICB is expected to deliver 16,190 additional urgent dental appointments as part of the scheme.

We are committed to reforming the dental contract, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.