Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of NHS dental provision in Wellingborough constituency.

On 7 February 2024, we published Faster, simpler and fairer: our plan to recover and reform NHS dentistry, which is backed by £200 million and will fund approximately 2.5 million additional appointments, or more than 1.5 million additional courses of dental treatment. The plan sets out our actions to improve dental access for patients across the country and to address the challenges facing National Health Service dentistry, including in Northamptonshire.

From 1 April 2023, the responsibility for commissioning primary care dentistry to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to all integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. Northamptonshire Integrated Care Board is responsible for having local processes in place to identify areas of need and determine the priorities for investment across the ICB area. NHS Dental Statistics, published by NHS Digital, provides data on dental activity in England. The latest annual report is available at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-dental-statistics