Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what incentives are in place to encourage universities to expand or introduce dental training programmes in the South west.

​​The department works closely with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) on a wide range of matters, to help ensure the NHS has the dentistry workforce that it needs, including funding for dental schools and the training of dental students.

Universities are autonomous bodies, independent from government and it is a decision for individual universities to decide whether they wish to establish a dental school.

​The government is preparing the 10 Year Health Plan which will set out a bold agenda to reform and repair the NHS. Ensuring that we have the right people, in the right places and with the right skills, will be central to this vision. The government will also publish a refreshed workforce plan to deliver the transformed health service that we will build over the next decade and treat patients on time again.

​The department continues to work closely with DHSC on the 10 Year Health Plan.