Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average time for an application to the National Dental Performers List to be processed has been in each of the last five years.

NHS England does not hold information on the average turnaround time for processing applications to join the National Dental Performers List. There is an expectation that applications should take 12 weeks to process but for some applications it can take longer. NHS England holds the contract with Capita for the administration of Primary Care Support Services, including the National Dental Performers List. The Performers List process checks that applicants have the correct evidence to ensure that safeguards are in place.

Service standards set in the Capita contract are a matter for NHS England as the contract holder. NHS England advises that the contract contains a range of remedies to incentivise and address performance. These include the application of financial service credits where agreed levels of performance are not achieved and rectification processes to affect improvement in service performance where this falls below expected levels.

NHS England has been closely monitoring and supporting Capita’s handling of applications for the National Dental Performers List both through weekly service reviews and through an NHS England Intensive Support Team who are working directly alongside Capita. The performance over the last year has not met the standards for which NHS England holds Capita accountable. As such, these actions will continue while the recovery plan for this service is fully delivered.