Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions she had with Cabinet colleagues about improving processing times for dental overseas registration exams.

The Secretary of State meets regularly with other Cabinet colleagues and ministerial meetings with external organisations are routinely published on GOV.uk. Officials in the Department speak regularly with the General Dental Council (GDC) to discuss the ways in which it can more efficiently deliver the Overseas Registration Exam (ORE) whilst maintaining high standards within the dental profession.

We welcome the GDC’s recent announcements that it is increasing the number of places available to sit the ORE. The GDC has tripled the number of places on sittings of ORE Part 1 for all sittings from August 2023 to the end of 2024. The GDC has also added an additional sitting of ORE Part 2 in 2024, bringing the total number of sittings up to four. Legislative changes that came into force in March 2023 provide the GDC with more flexibility to improve the way the ORE is run, and we will continue to encourage the GDC to make the best use of these new opportunities.