Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has considered strengthening the licensing requirements of the General Dental Council to improve access to dentistry for children, as recommended in a recent Policy Exchange report.

The General Dental Council (GDC) is the independent regulator of dentistry in the United Kingdom. The GDC sets the standards that must be met by domestic and international applicants wishing to be added to the UK dental register. As an independent regulator, it would be for the GDC to determine whether any changes are required to its standards in response to the Policy Exchange report’s recommendations.