Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to analysis by the British Dental Association, published on 10 February 2022, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the finding that 40 million fewer courses of treatment have been delivered since March 2020.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the delivery of National Health Service dental activity, due to the specific risk from the aerosol-generating procedures used during treatment. However, from July 2022, NHS England and NHS Improvement have asked practices to deliver 100% of contracted units of dental activity and 100% of units of orthodontic activity to safely increase access for patients. An additional £50 million was made available for the final quarter of 2021/22 to support the provision of urgent care to patients. The Department and NHS England and NHS Improvement are working with stakeholders, including the British Dental Association, on improvements to the NHS dental system to continue to increase access.