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 access to dentistry in the Ely and East Cambridgeshire constituency.

Data on dentistry is available in the Dental statistics – England 2023/24 dataset, published by the NHS Business Services Authority on 22 August 2024, and available at the following link:

https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/statistical-collections/dental-england/dental-statistics-england-202324

The data for the NHS Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Integrated Care Board (ICB), which includes Ely and Cambridgeshire, shows that 27% of adults were seen by a National Health Service dentist in the previous 24 months up to June 2025, compared to 40% in England, and that 55% of children were seen by an NHS dentist in the previous 12 months up to June 2025, compared to 57% in England.

We have asked ICBs to commission extra urgent dental appointments to make sure that patients with urgent dental needs can get the treatment they require. ICBs have been making extra appointments available from April 2025.

ICBs are recruiting posts through the Golden Hello scheme. This recruitment incentive will see dentists receiving payments of £20,000 to work in those areas that need them most for three years.

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.