Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the number of dentistry places at universities; and whether he plans to introduce incentives to help ensure dentistry graduates work in the NHS.

We will continue to ensure that numbers of dental school places are in line with England’s workforce requirements. Health Education England undertook a three-year review of education and training as part of their September 2021 Advancing Dental Care Review, which they are now implementing through their four year Dental Education Reform Programme to improve recruitment and retention.

We announced a package of changes last year which ensure dentists are more fairly rewarded for the National Health Service care that they deliver, making NHS dentistry a more attractive place for dentists and their teams to work. We know that we must go further, which is why we are again working with the sector and NHS England to consider further changes to improve the system. We will announce these changes shortly.