Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his Department's press release entitled Dental patients to benefit from 700,000 extra urgent appointments, published on 21 February 2025, how many additional urgent dental appointments will be delivered in Middlesbrough and Thornaby East constituency in (a) 2025–26 and (b) 2026-27.

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

Appointments are available across the country, with specific expectations for each region. These appointments are more heavily weighted towards those areas where they are needed the most. The NHS North East and North Cumbria ICB, which includes the Middlesbrough and Thornaby East constituency, is expected to deliver 57,559 additional urgent dental appointments as part of the scheme.

Data on delivery of urgent dental care, including additional delivery, will be published annually as part of the NHS Dental Statistics England Official Statistics series. These statistics are released each August and are the primary source of data on the delivery of NHS dental care.

On 16 December, we published the Government’s response to the public consultation on quality and payment reforms to the NHS dental contract. The changes will be introduced from April 2026. These reforms will put patients with greatest need first, incentivising urgent care and complex treatments. More information is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/nhs-dentistry-contract-quality-and-payment-reforms/outcome/government-response-to-consultation-on-nhs-dentistry-contract-quality-and-payment-reforms