Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what initiatives they are pursuing to increase the number of NHS dentists.

The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, published 30 June, sets out the steps the National Health Service and its partners need to take to deliver an NHS workforce that meets the changing needs of the population over the next 15 years. These include a 40% increase to dentistry undergraduate training places by 2031/32. To support this ambition, we will expand places by 24% by 2028/29, taking the overall number that year to 1,000 places.

Furthermore, we are currently working on a plan for dentistry, to be published shortly, to improve access to dental care across England. Our plan will build upon the package of reforms agreed in July 2022 and will address making NHS work more attractive to ensure dentists are incentivised to deliver more NHS care.