Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps he has taken to help improve access to NHS dentistry in South Cambridgeshire constituency.

The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including National Health Service dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. For South Cambridgeshire constituency, this is Cambridgeshire & Peterborough ICB.

We have asked ICBs to commission extra urgent dental appointments. ICBs have been making extra appointments available from 1 April 2025. Cambridgeshire & Peterborough ICB is expected to deliver 14,195 additional urgent dental appointments as part of the scheme.

ICBs are recruiting posts through the Golden Hello scheme. This recruitment incentive will see dentists receiving payments of £20,000 to work in those areas that need them most for three years. As of 22 September 2025, in England there were 97 dentists in post with a further eight dentists who have been recruited but are yet to start in post under this scheme. A further 224 posts are currently being advertised.

We are committed to reforming the dental contract, with a focus on matching resources to need, improving access, promoting prevention and rewarding dentists fairly, while enabling the whole dental team to work to the top of their capability. The Government is committed to achieving fundamental contract reform before the end of this Parliament.

We recently held a full public consultation on a package of changes to improve access to, and the quality of NHS dentistry, which will deliver better care for the diverse oral health needs of people across England. The consultation closed on 19 August 2025. The Government is considering the outcomes of the consultation and will publish a response in due course.