Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if the Government will help support dental laboratories by paying them their average lab element fees.

During the suspension of routine dentistry during the pandemic peak there was almost no demand for dental laboratory products. Demand continues to be significantly reduced post lock down as there is continued reduced activity in both National Health Service and private dentistry due to the need for heightened infection controls.

Dental laboratories do not receive funding from the NHS. Dentists, whether NHS or private, contract directly with laboratories as third party suppliers. It is therefore not possible for the NHS to direct NHS funding to laboratories for work not commissioned by dentists. However as private companies, laboratories were and are entitled to the full range of financial support from the Treasury available to private sector businesses and individuals affected financially by COVID-19.