Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the availability of routine check-up appointments for NHS dental patients in England.

No specific assessment has been made, as the information requested is not held centrally. Appointments for National Health Service treatment are managed locally by dental practices. NHS regional teams are responsible for commissioning of local NHS dental services and for assessing and monitoring dental activity with service providers. This includes ensuring that contracted practices deliver an adequate service.

Since July 2022, NHS England has asked practices to deliver 100% of contracted units of dental activity to safely improve access for patients. The Department and NHS England recently announced improvements to the NHS dental system, to increase access, target patients with higher oral health needs and make NHS dentistry a more attractive place to work for dentists and their teams.