Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to (a) introduce national guidance and (b) amend NHS dental contractual requirements to ensure that NHS dental practices make reasonable adjustments for disabled patients before deregistering them from NHS dental lists.

Care Quality Commission regulations mandate that all registered providers of dental care must have due regard to the protected characteristics defined in the Equality Act 2010. Under the Equality Act, health and care organisations, including providers of National Health Service dental services, have a legal duty to make reasonable adjustments to enable disabled patients to access care.

Patients in England are not registered with an NHS dental practice in the same way that they are registered with a general practice, although many NHS dental practices do tend to see patients regularly. There is no geographical restriction on which practice a patient may attend. NHS dentists may refuse to see a patient if they have reasonable grounds for doing so, for example when a patient repeatedly does not attend appointments.

We recognise that certain groups of patients may find it difficult to access dental care. Community dental services are available to people whose additional needs may mean they are not able to be treated at high street dental practices.