Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the 8.5 per cent increase in patient charges on access to NHS dentistry.

The Department has produced an Impact Assessment with respect to the uplift of National Health Service dental charges for patients in England from 24 April 2023, which is available from the following link:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2023/367/impacts/2023/41

Alongside this, and in line with our Public Sector Equality duty, the Department has also considered the impact of the change on equality and on those from disadvantaged groups. We have frozen dental patient charges since 2020 whilst other similar charges such as for NHS prescriptions have increased. This is despite rising inflation and increases in costs of delivering NHS care.

The uplift of NHS dental charges by 8.5% from 24 April 2023 will raise important revenue for pressurised NHS budgets and NHS dental services following COVID-19 restrictions. We consider it to be a proportionate rise as it remains below the Consumer Prices Index, which has increased by 17.9% since December 2020, and represents a £2 increase for a Band One course of treatment.

The qualifying criteria for the range of exemptions to NHS dental charges and support through the low-income scheme remain unchanged, mitigating the impact of uplifts on those who would be most affected. Just under half of NHS dental patients were treated free of charge in the 2021/22 financial year.