Asked by: Andrew Murrison (Conservative - South West Wiltshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to add dentists to the shortage occupation list.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The independent Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) last reviewed whether Dental Practitioners should be included on the SOL in 2019, and did not recommend doing so.
Dentists are an eligible occupation to be sponsored under the Skilled Worker route, subject to the rules and requirements of the route being met.
The main benefits of an occupation being on the Shortage Occupation List (SOL) is a lower salary threshold and reduced visa fees. Dentists already receive these benefits through tradeable points and the Health and Care visa (which also exempts them from paying the Immigration Health Surcharge), so there would be little visible benefit in adding them to the SOL.
Following recommendations in their 2020 review the Government have agreed to review the SOL more regularly, the next review is expected to be in 2022. As with all SOL reviews, the MAC will launch a call for evidence and dental stakeholders will be able to provide their input to this process.