Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress they have made in preventing a shortfall of dental foundation training places from occurring in 2014 and in ensuring that positions will be found for final year students who have yet to be allocated a place.

Health Education England (HEE) are funding more training places than the number of students forecast to graduate from dental schools in England, Wales and Northern Ireland in the 2014 recruitment. London Shared Services is leading the recruitment process on behalf of HEE for the Dental Foundation Training programme and they are currently half way through this process.

HEE have said that more places will become available as a result of students who have accepted posts and are now deferring or have failed their final examinations.