Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of increasing the minimum unit of dental activity rates to help tackle recruitment issues for practices.

A minimum Unit of Dental Activity (UDA) value of £28 is in place to support practices with historically low UDA rates. There are differential UDA rates across England, and integrated care boards have the flexibility to set the UDA rate locally, which may help to support local interventions. The current differential UDA rates allow providers to use differing pay rates to reflect the local market rates.

We recently held a public consultation on a package of changes to improve access to, and improve the quality of, National Health Service dentistry, which will deliver better care for the diverse oral health needs of people across England. The consultation closed on 19 August, and the Government is considering the outcomes of the consultation and will publish a response in due course, with the expectation of implementing the reforms from April 2026.

We are committed to reforming the dental contract, with a focus on matching resources to need, improving access, promoting prevention, and rewarding dentists fairly, while enabling the whole dental team to work to the top of their capability. The Government is committed to achieving fundamental contract reform by the end of this Parliament.