Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of setting minimum targets for integrated care boards on the proportion of people seen by NHS dental providers over a 24 month period.

Integrated care boards are responsible for commissioning primary care dentistry and receive an annual allocation of funding to secure services to meet the needs of their population.

The Government plans to tackle the challenges for patients trying to access NHS dental care with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to the areas that need them most. To rebuild dentistry in the long term, we will reform the dental contract with the sector, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.