Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what preventative and early intervention steps he plans to take to reduce the cost to NHS trusts and foundation trusts of providing tooth extractions for patients aged 18 years and under.

Oral health programmes are commissioned locally by local authorities and NHS England. Public Health England has published evidence based toolkits and works at local level to support these bodies.

The National Health Service preventative programme, Starting Well, is aimed at children under the age of five. Based on a preventative approach, the aim and objectives are to provide a number of schemes that will encourage attendance and prevention at an early age, within a variety of locations, to educate and help mitigate the requirements for routine treatment and or extraction within a secondary care environment.

The soft drinks industry levy and sugar reduction programme aim to reduce the amount of sugar children and young people consume.