Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department holds any data on the ratio of NHS dentists to the population; and if he will make a statement.

NHS Digital publishes annual Dental Statistics for England with data on dental activity including clinical treatments, dental workforce, and the number of patients seen. The latest report sets out that 24,272 dentists performed National Health Service activity during 2021/22. This compares with a population of 56,536,000 in England. Therefore there is one dentist for every 2,329.3 people in England.

NHS Digital’s Dental Statistics are available at the following link: https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-dental-statistics