Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his Department’s policy to introduce a ban on mercury dental fillings in England.

Dental amalgam is a well-established, safe, and effective dental filling material. Current Department policy is to restrict and phase down the use of dental amalgam to reduce any environmental impacts. This includes regulations to ban the use of amalgam in baby teeth, pregnant and breastfeeding women, and children under 15 years old, except when deemed strictly necessary for specific medical needs. This has been in place since 2018.

The United Kingdom is party to the Minamata Convention on Mercury, a global treaty to protect human health and the environment from the adverse effects of mercury. The Minamata Convention has recommended that those party to the convention phase down the use of dental amalgam, which the UK does, for example, by restricting its use in under 15-year-olds.

The sixth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Minamata Convention is taking place from 3 November to 7 November 2025, where a ban on mercury dental amalgam will be discussed.