Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord O'Shaughnessy on 4 December 2018 (HL11750), how many antibiotic prescriptions were issued by general dental practitioners in England in 2018.

The Dental Prescribing Dashboard developed by the NHS Business Services Authority and Public Health England, includes data for National Health Service local area teams. Latest available data show general dental practitioners issued 2,912,579 prescriptions for all antimicrobials including antibiotics during April 2017 to March 2018. There were 715,545 prescriptions between January and March 2018. The Dental Prescribing Dashboard will be refreshed in summer 2019.

Analysis is based on items prescribed by NHS dentists, but some patients may attend a general medical practice with a dental infection and receive a prescription from their general practitioner (GP). These prescriptions are not included, as we cannot determine the reason why a GP prescribed antibiotics.

The English Surveillance Programme for Antimicrobial Utilisation and Resistance (ESPAUR) Report 2018 provides information on NHS dental prescribing in dental practices and consultations. The ESPAUR report for 2019 scheduled for publication later this year will publish data for the 2018 calendar year. The ESPAUR 2018 report is attached.