Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has plans to review the Primary Care National Contract for Dentistry to increase its flexibility for (a) the commissioner (b) the provider.

We are currently negotiating with the British Dental Association on a number of initial proposed changes to the National Health Service contract for dental services, aimed at supporting the commissioning and delivery of NHS dentistry in the short term. We expect to be able to announce the outcome of these negotiations shortly and will set out an implementation timetable when negotiations conclude. The development of further proposed changes in the long term will be progressed over the summer and autumn of 2022.