Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to his Department’s press release entitled Patients to benefit from improved access to dental appointments, published on 21 February 2026, how many additional urgent appointments each high street dentist will be required to provide.

The Government is committed to ensuring people can access urgent dental care when they need it. Over the past year, integrated care boards (ICBs) have been commissioning additional urgent dental appointments and there is now an urgent care safety net available in all areas of the country.

We are broadening the scope of the commitment to deliver additional appointments so that they can be used for more patients, not just those who meet the clinical criteria for “urgent” care. This will allow ICBs to use the extra commissioned capacity more flexibly and deliver more appointments, ensuring resources reach those who genuinely need treatment. Each ICB is responsible for commissioning dental services in their area from local providers.

We will ensure a continued urgent care safety net by requiring, from April 2026, high street dentists to deliver 8.2% of their total contract value as urgent or unscheduled care.

The Mid and South Essex ICB, which includes the South Basildon and East Thurrock constituency, delivered 53,376 additional courses of treatment in the first seven months of this financial year, from April to October 2025, compared to the corresponding months of the year before the general election.