Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate she has made of average waiting times for NHS orthodontic treatment for children and young people; and what steps her Department is taking to reduce waiting times.

Data on the average waiting times for National Health Service orthodontic treatment is not held centrally.

Integrated care board (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning primary care services, including NHS dentistry and orthodontic services, to meet the needs of the local population.

To support ICBs in their duties, NHS England has published several documents, including clinical policy to support the commissioning of orthodontic activity, to ensure that resources invested by the NHS in specialist care are used in the most effective way and provide the best possible quality and quantity of care for patients. The clinical policy to support the commissioning of orthodontic activity is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/clinical-standards-for-dental-specialties-orthodontics/

The Government invests approximately £3 billion in primary care dentistry every year. Dental budgets are ringfenced and NHS England reserves the right to direct that any unused resources are used to improve dental access. Exceptionally, the unspent allocation may be returned to NHS England.

The Government wants to ensure that every penny we allocate for dentistry is spent on dentistry, and that the ringfenced dental budget is spent on the patients who need it most.