Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when his Department plans to increase the availability of NHS dental services in (a) York and (b) England.

Delivered Units of Dental Activity (UDA) are reconciled against contracted UDAs at the end of each contract year. The latest data is available relates to 2020/2021. Throughout this year, revised contractual targets were mandated in response to COVID-19, taking into account national guidance on infection prevention control measures. In York, 19 providers met these revised activity targets at year end, while one provider did not meet these targets and the financial equivalent of 271 UDA was returned from this provider.

Data on the additional activity commissioned through the £50 million provided to regions for urgent dental care will be available in July. There are no plans to increase the number of dental practices in York. However, NHS England’s regional commissioners continue to work with local contractors to restore access to National Health Service dentistry to pre-pandemic levels of activity and address local needs. Between April and June 2022 NHS England and NHS Improvement have asked practices to deliver at least 95% of contracted units of dental activity to safely improve access for patients safely.