Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish a comprehensive plan on the future of NHS dentistry before Christmas 2022.

In September, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which outlines how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to dental care. The plan includes improvements to ensure dentists are renumerated fairly for more complex work, allowing greater flexibility to reallocate resources and to utilise dentists with greater capacity to deliver National Health Service treatment, whilst enabling full use of the dental team. The plan also includes streamlining processes for overseas dentists and holding the local NHS to account for dentistry provision. In addition, Health Education England is also reforming dental education to improve the recruitment and retention of dental professionals.

We have also announced reforms to the NHS dental contract which are being implemented, including through recent Statutory Instruments. NHS England will publish additional guidance for dentists and commissioners shortly. NHS England is holding further discussions with the British Dental Association, other dental stakeholder groups and patients.