Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of capacity for the General Dental Council’s Overseas Registration Examination; and what discussions he has had with the General Dental Council on reducing waiting times for Part 2 of that examination and on the affordability of recent increases in examination fees for overseas-qualified dentists.

The Government recognises the challenges faced by overseas-qualified dentists seeking to sit the Overseas Registration Examination (ORE), particularly in relation to waiting times.

The General Dental Council (GDC) is the independent regulator of dental professionals in the United Kingdom and therefore is responsible for determining the standards that professionals wishing to practise in the UK must meet in order to be registered.

The GDC has recently put in place a new delivery contract which will significantly increase capacity across both parts of the ORE. This represents an unprecedented expansion in exam throughput, with capacity for Part 1 and Part 2 sittings expected to increase to 2,400 and 1,500 places per year respectively. Overall, the expansion is projected to deliver a more than fivefold increase in the number of overseas-qualified dentists able to complete the ORE and join the register by 2028. This significant increase in capacity will enable greater throughput of the examination and is therefore expected to reduce waiting times for ORE candidates over the coming years. In addition, the GDC is developing a new candidate portal, including a revised booking system, as part of the new contract. This is due to be in place for exams scheduled in 2027.

As an independent regulator, it is for the GDC to determine the appropriate fee level to effectively run the ORE examination. The GDC has indicated that the fee increase is necessary to support greatly expanded capacity under the new contract, including specialist facilities, examiners, quality assurance, and VAT on delivery costs.

The Royal College of Surgeons of England provides an alternative route for overseas-trained dentists, the License in Dental Surgery. In March 2026, the Government announced grant funding to support an expansion of this examination route, which is expected to increase final exam places tenfold by 2028, from approximately 180 to a projected 1,800.