Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate she has made of the average time it has taken for dentists whose primary qualification is from outside the UK to receive an NHS performer number from the time of application in each NHS region in each of the last five financial years.
Answered by Will Quince
This information is not held centrally.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she will take steps to promote the recruitment of dentists from overseas by the NHS.
Answered by Will Quince
There are no plans to promote the recruitment of dentists from overseas by the National Health Service.
The Government is currently making changes to the General Dental Council’s (GDC) international registration legislation which will allow the GDC greater flexibility to improve its existing international registration process and introduce alternative routes to registration for international applicants whilst maintaining its focus on robust public protection. We are aiming to introduce these changes by the end of 2022, subject to the Parliamentary process and time.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate she has made of the average units of dental activity delivered by each NHS dentist in each Parliamentary constituency in each of the last five years.
Answered by Will Quince
This information is not collected in the format requested.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate she has made of the number of whole time equivalent dentists providing NHS dentistry in England by Parliamentary constituency.
Answered by Will Quince
The information requested is not held at constituency level.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what her policy is on allowing local NHS commissioners to use flexible commissioning to improve the training of dentists, including clinicians from outside the UK.
Answered by Will Quince
NHS England is able to use flexible commissioning to convert units of dental activity to activity which focuses on priority areas, such as improving access to urgent care or targeting high risk patient groups. On 29 March 2021, NHS England released a flexible commissioning toolkit for regional commissioners to provide good practice which can be implemented locally. NHS England is monitoring the use of these measures.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS dental contracts have been handed back in each NHS region in of the last five financial years.
Answered by Will Quince
Information on the number of contract terminations at the request of the contractor in each region in England in 2021/22 and 2022/23 is attached. Information prior to 2021/22 is not held centrally.