Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Reform UK - Romford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to encourage more dentists to provide NHS dentistry.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government acknowledges the challenges that National Health Service dental patients are facing in accessing a dentist in particular areas of the country, and we are taking action to improve this. Integrated care boards are recruiting posts through the Golden Hello scheme, which will see dentists receiving payments of £20,000 to work in underserved areas for three years; and as announced in our 10-Year Health Plan, we will make it a requirement for newly qualified dentists to practice in the NHS for a minimum period, intended to be at least three years. That will mean more NHS dentists, more NHS appointments and better oral health.
We are committed to delivering fundamental reform of the dental contract before the end of this Parliament. As a first step, we published the Government’s response to the public consultation on shorter term improvements to the NHS dental contract on 16 December 2025. The changes will be introduced from April 2026. These reforms will put patients with the greatest needs first while incentivising urgent care and complex treatments. Further information is available at the following link:
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the number of adults with tooth decay.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is proceeding with the reforms to the National Health Service dental contract. These will be introduced from April 2026 so that patients with gum disease or tooth decay will be better able to get long-term treatment through new clinical treatment pathways. Further information is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/nhs-dentistry-contract-quality-and-payment-reforms
We are also committed to fundamental reform of the NHS dental contract by the end of this Parliament, with a focus on improving access, promoting prevention, and rewarding dentists fairly.
Sugar consumption is the main cause of tooth decay. We are taking measures to reduce sugar consumption, which will have a positive effect on improving children’s oral health. Following the Strengthening the Soft Drinks Industry Levy (SDIL) consultation, we will reduce the current lower threshold at which the SDIL applies from five grams of total sugar per 100 millilitres to 4.5 grams of total sugar per 100 millilitres and will remove the current exemption for milk-based drinks.
We are expanding community water fluoridation to the North East of England. This intervention is expected to reach an additional 1.6 million people and will reduce tooth decay and inequalities in dental health.
We have published guidance on how dental health professionals can improve the oral and general health of their patients, including preventative interventions. This can be viewed at the following link:
Guidance for local service commissioners on better oral health of vulnerable older people is also available at the following link:
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of levels of provision of dental services on (a) children’s and (b) adults' oral health.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The recently published Adult Oral Health Survey 2023 provides the first picture of adult oral health in England for more than a decade. This shows that among dentate adults, those with at least one natural tooth, over two-fifths, or 41%, showed evidence of obvious decay and 9% had one or more potentially urgent dental conditions. Similarly, the Oral Health Survey for five-year-olds in 2024 indicates that 22.4%, or more than a fifth, of five-year-old schoolchildren had experience of obvious tooth decay.
The Government is focussed on the prevention of poor dental health through our supervised toothbrushing programme to reach up to 600,000 children in the 20% most deprived areas of England, and by expanding community water fluoridation to the North East of England. This intervention will reach an additional 1.6 million people and will reduce tooth decay and inequalities in dental health, particularly in children and vulnerable adults.
We are committed to delivering fundamental reform of the dental contract before the end of this Parliament. As a first step, on 16 December we published the Government’s response to the public consultation on interim improvements to the National Health Service 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. Further information is available at the following link:
Asked by: John Slinger (Labour - Rugby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his department has considered replacing the routine six-monthly dental check-up with a system based on individual clinical need.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Patients should be recalled based on their clinical need. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance on recall intervals states that a healthy adult with good oral health should see a dentist once every two years, and a child once every year.
On 16 December we published the Government’s response to the public consultation on improvements to the National Health Service 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, and will reduce clinically unnecessary check-ups.
Through the consultation, we sought feedback on alternative approaches or strategies that could best support practices to adhere to evidence-based recommendations on the time between routine examinations. The Government will consider further how best to implement the preferred options to support clinically appropriate check-ups that are also aligned to NICE guidance, noting that public education and the introduction of a risk assessment tool were the most popular options respondents to the consultation selected. The Government also intends to introduce ‘clinically appropriate patient recalls’ as the first topic of the quality improvement initiative, which was also proposed through the recent consultation. Further information is available from the following link:
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to bring forward a strategy for dental health research.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department invests over £1.6 billion each year on research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).
Whilst there are currently no plans to develop a dental health research strategy, the NIHR continues to welcome funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including dental research. These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money, and scientific quality.
The Department, through the NIHR, funds clinical academic training for doctors and dentists through the Integrated Academic Training Programme. This includes Academic Clinical Fellowships (ACFs) at the pre-doctoral level and Clinical Lectureships (CLs) at the post-doctoral level. Over the last five years, 91 ACFs and 24 CLs were recruited in dentistry.
The Department also funds the NIHR Oral Health Research Incubator, which is a researcher-led initiative aimed at building dental research capacity at the national level.
Ongoing research at Newcastle University is investigating the roles and skill utilisation of professionals in dental practice.
In addition, investments in NIHR infrastructure support the country’s leading experts to develop and deliver high-quality translational, clinical, and applied research that is funded by the NIHR’s research programmes, other public funders of research, charities, and the life sciences industry. For example, through the NIHR University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre’s Oral and Dental Medicine research theme.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Independent - Gorton and Denton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps he has taken to help reduce (a) regional and (b) wealth inequalities in access to NHS dentistry services.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning primary care services, including National Health Service dentistry, to meet the needs of the local populations, and for determining the priorities for investment.
We do not hold data on access to NHS dentistry according to income. However, ICBs are responsible for undertaking special care oral health needs assessments to inform local commissioning intentions that reduce inequalities in access and priorities for investment.
We have asked ICBs to commission extra urgent dental appointments, with these appointments more heavily weighted towards those areas where they are needed the most. ICBs have been making extra appointments available from 1 April 2025.
More broadly, as per the 10-Year Health Plan for England, we are shifting the focus from treatment to prevention. This includes assessing the roll out of further water fluoridation programmes in areas where oral health outcomes are poorest, and through targeted action such as our supervised toothbrushing programme for three to five-year-olds living in the 20% most deprived areas of England. Both of these interventions improve oral health and reduce inequalities.
Asked by: Marie Goldman (Liberal Democrat - Chelmsford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department collects data on (a) dental access and (b) treatment outcomes for people born with a cleft lip and/or palate.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Data is not held centrally on dental access and treatment outcomes for people born with a cleft. We recognise that certain groups of patients may be more vulnerable to oral health problems, including patients with clefts.
NHS England commissions services for children, young people, and adults with a cleft lip and/or palate. The patient pathway can start from pre-birth and continues into adulthood. Cleft services provide care through multi-disciplinary teams, and the comprehensive care pathway will include elements such as paediatric dentistry, restorative dentistry, and orthodontics. A copy of the Cleft Lip and/or Palate Services including Non-Cleft Velopharyngeal Dysfunction (VPD) (All Ages) Service Specification is attached.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department plans to take to ensure the dental workforce is equipped and supported to deliver (a) fluoride varnish and (b) other preventive interventions within neighbourhood health settings.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Our Neighbourhood Health Service will provide opportunities for dental care professionals to work as part of neighbourhood teams. We have consulted on changes to improve access to, and the quality of, National Health Service dentistry. To support practices to make better use of the skill mix of their team and to improve delivery of fluoride varnish, we have proposed introducing a new course of treatment for children for fluoride varnish to be applied by suitably trained dental nurses. Public consultation closed on 19 August, and the Government will publish a response shortly.
We have also published guidance on how dental health professionals can improve the oral and general health of their patients, including fluoride varnish and other preventative interventions. This is available at the following link:
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that the number of children who have been seen by an NHS dentist in Slough is in line with the national average.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including National Health Service dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to the integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. For the Slough constituency, this is the Frimley ICB.
We have asked ICBs to commission extra urgent dental appointments to make sure that patients with urgent dental needs can get the treatment they require. ICBs have been making extra appointments available from 1 April 2025.
ICBs are recruiting posts through the Golden Hello scheme. This recruitment incentive will see dentists receiving payments of £20,000 to work in those areas that need them most for three years.
We recently held a full public consultation on a package of changes to improve access to, and the quality of NHS dentistry, which will deliver better care for the diverse oral health needs of people across England. The consultation closed on 19 August. The Government is considering the outcomes of the consultation and will publish a response shortly.
We are committed to reforming the dental contract, with a focus on matching resources to need, improving access, promoting prevention, and rewarding dentists fairly, while enabling the whole dental team to work to the top of their capability. The Government is committed to achieving fundamental contract reform before the end of this Parliament.
Asked by: Adam Dance (Liberal Democrat - Yeovil)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve access to NHS dental care for people with clefts in Yeovil constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We recognise that certain groups of patients may be more vulnerable to oral health problems, including patients with clefts.
NHS England commissions services for children, young people, and adults with a cleft lip and/or palate. The patient pathway can start from pre-birth and continues into adulthood. Cleft services provide care through multi-disciplinary teams, and the comprehensive care pathway will include elements such as paediatric dentistry, restorative dentistry, and orthodontics. Further information is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/d07-cleft-lip.pdf
Regarding access to general primary care National Health Service dentistry, the responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including NHS dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to the integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. We have asked ICBs to commission extra urgent dental appointments. ICBs have been making extra appointments available from 1 April 2025.
ICBs are also recruiting dentists through the Golden Hello scheme. This recruitment incentive will see dentists receiving payments of £20,000 to work in those areas that need them most for three years.