Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential impact of setting a minimum Unit of Dental Activity rate of £30 on the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of NHS dental professionals in (i) the South West, (ii) St Ives, (iii) West Cornwall and (iv) the Isles of Scilly.

We have no plans to make such an assessment.

From 1 April 2023, responsibility for commissioning primary care dentistry to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. ICBs have flexibility to work with contractors within the bounds of the current contractual framework as set out in the current General Dental Service contract and Personal Dental Service agreement regulations. At its discretion, an ICB may choose to negotiate with a contractor to decrease or increase the indicative Unit of Dental Activity rate of their contract, the Negotiated Annual Contract Value. Any variation should be for reasonable and appropriate circumstances only and demonstrate value for money and improve access for patients.

In July 2022, we announced a package of dental system improvements to increase access for dental patients in the National Health Service and make NHS dentistry more attractive to practices. We will announce our plan for further reform of the NHS dental system shortly.