Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans the Government has to help increase the number of dental school places.

The Government continues to keep the number of dental school places that it funds under review.

NHS England has been commissioned to produce a long-term National Health Service workforce plan. The Government has committed to publishing the plan shortly and this will include projections for the number of doctors, nurses and other professionals that will be needed in five, 10- and 15-years’ time, taking full account of improvements in retention and productivity. The workforce plan is for the whole of the NHS workforce, including dentists.