Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the level of demand for NHS dentist places.

NHS England commission primary care dental services based on local oral health needs assessments in collaboration with public health teams in local authorities to determine the needs of local populations.

Information is collected quarterly from patients on whether they sought a National Health Service dental appointment and, if so, whether they were successful. This “GP Patient Survey Dental Statistics; January to March 2015, England” provides information on how far demand for NHS dental treatment is being met.

This information is available at national, and clinical commissioning group (CCG) level. It is not collected at constituency level. In the latest survey, carried out in January to March 2015, 93% of English respondents had sought an NHS dental appointment in the last two years and reported they had been successful. In the NHS Sheffield CCG area this figure was 91%.

The full results from the survey can be found at:

http://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/2015/07/02/5694gpps_dentw21415/