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 financial pressures on dentistry students’ ability to complete training.

No such assessment has been made. The Department for Education provides the primary student support package for domestic dental students in higher education through Student Finance England (SFE).

From year five of an undergraduate and year two of a graduate-entry course, these students can access the NHS Bursary. For this academic year the Government increased the NHS Bursary tuition fee contributions, maintenance grants, and all allowances by 3.1%, in line with increases to SFE support.

This is the second academic year the Government has increased support for medical and dental students through the NHS Bursary. Prior to this the maintenance grants had not been uplifted since 2015. We understand that these uplifts do not go far enough to make up for the historical lack of uplift. However, this is a step in the right direction, and we continue to keep funding for dental students under review.