Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department collects data on NHS dental practitioners’ reasons for leaving the NHS.

The NHS Business Services Authority collects data on the number of dentists (performers) who provide some National Health Service primary care dental services in each financial year. This data includes information on leavers and joiners. Leavers are defined as dentists who performed NHS activity in one year but then recorded no activity in the following year and Joiners are defined dentists who recorded NHS activity in the later year but who did not record NHS activity in the previous year. The information requested on NHS-registered dental practitioners ceasing to provide NHS services for the last 10 years is attached. Most dentists (associates) work on NHS contracts held by other dentists with NHS England.

No information is held on the reasons for an individual dentist leaving an NHS contract. Where the dentist is a contract holder the funding returns to NHS England and it is able to re-let the contract. Where the dentist is working on a contract as an associate the contract holder will seek to recruit a replacement dentist. Overall in the last year for which data is available, 2017/18 total numbers of dentists providing some NHS service increased.