Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he plans to take to tackle the shortfall in NHS dental (a) surgeons, (b) nurses and (c) other staff.

NHS England and NHS Improvement are leading on the reforms to the National Health Service dental contract, working with the Department and the British Dental Association. Changes to the system will make the NHS dental offer more attractive for dentists and their teams.

Health Education England (HEE) has set out a range of recommendations in the ‘Advancing Dental Care Review’, which aim to tackle recruitment, retention and attracting dentists into the NHS. These recommendations are being implemented through HEE’s dental education reform programme.