Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the incidence of childhood dental decay in (1) those regions where the water supply is fluoridated, and (2) those where it is not.

Public Health England’s Water fluoridation Health monitoring report for England 2014 compared a range of dental and non-dental health indicators in fluoridated and non-fluoridated areas.

The report concluded that, when deprivation and ethnicity were taken into account, five year-old children in areas with a fluoridated water supply were 28% less likely to have tooth decay than those in non-fluoridated areas, and 12 year-old children in areas with a fluoridated water supply were 21% less likely to have had tooth decay in permanent teeth than children living in non-fluoridated areas. A copy of Water fluoridation Health monitoring report for England 2014 is attached.