Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy to establish a process whereby people from overseas with professional dentistry qualifications are able to shadow NHS dentists for the purposes of learning the (a) professional language and (b) operations of UK dentistry.

All dentists wishing to join the Performers List in England must demonstrate the equivalent knowledge and experience as a dental practitioner who has completed dental foundation training. Dentists trained overseas can undertake the Performers List Validation by Experience programme in an approved dental practice. An approved validation supervisor will assess the applicant’s communication and clinical skills when treating patients and to ensure patient safety.