Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate his Department has made of the number of (a) adults and (b) children in (i) Coventry North East constituency and (ii) Coventry that (A) are not registered with an NHS dentist and (B) have been unable to access NHS dental treatment in each of the last two years; and what steps his Department is taking to improve access to NHS dentistry in these areas.

No specific estimate has been made as the information requested is not collected centrally.

In September, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which outlines how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to dental care, including in Coventry. We have also introduced improvements to the National Health Service dental system which came into effect in November 2022. This will ensure that dentists are more fairly remunerated for NHS treatment of patients with higher care needs, improve access and make the NHS dental contract more attractive to dentists. Dentists are also legally required to update practice information for patients at NHS.UK at least every 90 days.

NHS England is holding further discussions on the NHS dental system with the British Dental Association and other stakeholders and additional reforms are planned in 2023.