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 the mandatory covid-19 vaccine programme on (a) dental services and (b) dental nurses.

The Department’s impact assessment estimated that approximately 97,000 dentists and dental care professionals would be in scope of the COVID-19 vaccine requirements. Of these, 4% are estimated to remain unvaccinated at the end of the grace period and not medically exempt and would therefore no longer be deployable. The Government continues to encourage unvaccinated staff to make the positive choice to be vaccinated.