Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to attract high quality dental professionals into NHS dentistry across the (a) South West and (b) UK.

In the South West, NHS England are working with Bristol and Peninsula Dental schools as part of the South West Dental Reform programme to address the challenges facing National Health Service dentistry in the region. The programme is looking at innovative ways to attract dental staff.

NHS England and NHS Improvement are leading on reforms to the current dental contract and wider dental system to make the NHS dental offer more attractive for dentists and their teams. Health Education England has made recommendations in their September 2021 Advancing Dental Care Review to tackle recruitment, retention and attracting dentists into the NHS. These recommendations are being implemented through their Dental Education Reform Programme.