Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of (1) NHS dentists, and (2) NHS dental practices, for each of the last five years.
The information requested on the number of practices providing National Health Service dentistry is not held centrally. However, the following table shows the number of dentists undertaking activity on behalf of the NHS and the number of dental contracts in each year since 2017/18.
Year NHS dentists NHS contracts
2017/18 24,308 8,526
2018/19 24,545 8,479
2019/20 24,684 8,408
2020/21 23,733 8,305
2021/22 N/A 8,341
Information on the number of dentists providing NHS care in 2021/22 is expected to be published in the third quarter of 2022/23.