Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will introduce training bonds for overseas dentists to work in the NHS for a fixed period.

The Government has no plans to enforce or incentivise overseas dentists specifically to work in the National Health Service.

The General Dental Council (GDC) has opened tendering for provision of Overseas Registration Exam (ORE) Part 1 and Part 2 for the next five years, looking to improve flexibility and availability to the ORE for overseas-dentists. The GDC expanded ORE capacity by 1300 places in 2023-2024.

On 23 May a consultation for a ‘tie-in’ to NHS dentistry for graduate dentists was published. The consultation closed on 18 July. We will consider responses to the consultation and will set out the Government’s position on the proposal in due course.

This Government plans to tackle the challenges for patients trying to access NHS dental care with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to areas that need them most.

To rebuild dentistry in the long term and increase access to NHS dental care, we will reform the dental contract, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.