UK Inquiry Tracker

Fixing NHS Dentistry

Public Accounts Committee Closed Inquiry

Opened: 15 Jan 2025 Closed: 16 Jun 2025 Parliament page

Two-fifths of the adult population in England saw an NHS dentist in the 24 months up to March 2024 – this is down from just under half of the adult population pre-pandemic. There were 483 fewer dentists providing some NHS care in England in 2023-24 compared with 2019-20. The previous … Read more Two-fifths of the adult population in England saw an NHS dentist in the 24 months up to March 2024 – this is down from just under half of the adult population pre-pandemic. There were 483 fewer dentists providing some NHS care in England in 2023-24 compared with 2019-20. The previous Government published its Dental Recovery Plan in February 2024. This aimed to increase access to NHS dentistry services, aspiring to deliver more than 1.5m additional courses of treatment, or 2.5m appointments total, in 2024-25. The Health and Social Care Committee launched an inquiry into NHS dentistry in 2022, following a survey that showed 90% of practices across the UK were not accepting new adult NHS patients. Its 2023 report called for a Fundamental reform of NHS dentistry to end a ‘crisis of access’. The Public Accounts Committee’s (PAC) 2019 report into penalty charge notices in healthcare found that the rules for claiming free prescriptions and dental treatment were confusing and needed to be changed. The National Audit Office published its own report conclusions from its investigation into the Dental Recovery Plan in November 2024 . It found that the plan was unlikely to deliver its target of 1.5m additional treatments, and that even if the target was reached, it would still be 2.6m fewer treatments per year than pre-pandemic levels. It further highlighted a £392m underspend in 2023-24 across the NHS dental budget. Based on the NAO report, the PAC will hear from senior Government officials on delivery of better access to NHS dentistry and progress on the plan, with likely topics including: The dental contract; Falls in the number of dentists; The current picture on Government spending to support access to NHS dentistry. The Committee is unable to help with individual cases. If you need help with an individual problem you are having, you may wish to read the information on Parliament’s website about who you can contact with different issues . Please look at the requirements for written evidence submissions and note that the Committee cannot accept material as evidence that is published elsewhere. If you have evidence on this issue, please submit it here by 23:59 on Thursday 30 January. Show less

1 Recommendation

32 Conclusions

1 Report

1 Oral session

4 Letters

1 Event

Activity timeline 9 events

8 Jan
2026

Correspondence

Letter from the National Director for Primary Care and Community Services at NHS England relating to Recommendation 2a of the Committee’s T…

1 Dec
2025

Correspondence

Letter from the National Director for Primary Care and Community Services at NHS England relating to the Committee’s Twenty-first Report on…

18 Sep
2025

Report published

Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Twenty-first report from Session 2024-26

10 Jul
2025

Report published

Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Twenty-first report from Session 2024-25

4 Apr
2025

Report published

21st Report - Fixing NHS Dentistry

27 Mar
2025

Correspondence

Letter from the Interim Permanent Secretary of the Department of Health and Social Care and the Chief Executive Officer at NHS England rela…

13 Feb
2025

Oral evidence

Oral evidence session

13 Feb
2025

Correspondence

Letter from the Interim Permanent Secretary of the Department of Health and Social Care and the Chief Executive Officer at NHS England rela…

13 Feb
2025

Formal meeting (oral evidence session) · The Grimond Room, Portcullis House

Committee event

Oral evidence sessions 1 session

13 Feb 2025

View on parliament.uk

Ali Sparke · NHS England Amanda Pritchard · NHS England Jason Wong MBE · NHS England Jonathan Marron CB · Department of Health and Social Care Sir Chris Whitty · Department of Health and Social Care

Reports 1 report · click to expand

Title	HC No.	Published	Items	Response
21st Report - Fixing NHS Dentistry	HC 648	4 Apr 2025	33	Responded

Recommendations & Conclusions

1 result

6 Conclusion Acknowledged

21st Report - Fixing NHS Dentistry

Publish dental graduate tie-in response and outline plans to attract and retain NHS dental professionals.

Without a workforce sufficiently supported to deliver NHS dental care, there will be no future for NHS dentistry and DHSC and NHSE have not yet done enough to address workforce issues. The total number of dentists delivering some NHS dental … Read more Without a workforce sufficiently supported to deliver NHS dental care, there will be no future for NHS dentistry and DHSC and NHSE have not yet done enough to address workforce issues. The total number of dentists delivering some NHS dental care is in decline and NHSE data showed that in March 2024 there were over 5,500 vacancies across the NHS dental profession with many of these going unfilled for over 180 days. Whether the issue is a lack of dental professionals altogether, or a lack of dental professionals willing to take on NHS work, it is clear that there 6 is a need to go further on efforts to support the dental workforce. This is particularly true for deprived, rural and coastal parts of the country where challenges in attracting dentists to work are particularly acute. The dental recovery plan included some measures to address this challenge, such as a consultation for a dental graduate “tie–in” to the NHS, expanding training places and helping patients access care from a variety of dental professionals. The results of the consultation on the dental graduate tie–in is still outstanding, and work by DHSC on the other measures is ongoing. The success of these measures will depend on buy–in from all members of the dental team, and a clear sense from DHSC and NHSE of what the barriers are to attracting professionals to NHS work. recommendation DHSC must: a. publish its response to the consultation on a dental graduate “tie–in”; and b. set out what more the department and NHSE intend to do to address obstacles to attracting dental professionals to carry out NHS work and close the gap between it and private work. This response must include detail on what further work is planned on skills mix and ensuring that dental practices make best use of all members of the wider dental team. This should include an explanation of how all dental professional groups will be consulted on future reforms. 7 1 Contractual reform and the 2024 dental recovery plan Introduction Show less

Government Response

The government states work is underway to reform the dental contract and will consider improvements to incentivize NHS care, including greater use of the wider dental team. They will publish a refreshed long-term workforce plan in Summer 2025, which will consider all dental professionals, and will write to the Committee with an update.

HM Treasury

View details

Government Response AI assessment · 32 of 1 classified

Accepted 13

Accepted in Part 4

Acknowledged 1

Deferred 14

Total 1 rec + 32 conclusions

Correspondence 4 letters

8 Jan 2026 To committee Letter from the National Director for Primary Care and Community Services at NHS England relating to Recommendation 2a of the Committee’s Twenty-first Report on Fixing NHS Dentistry, 30 December 2025

Parliament page

1 Dec 2025 To committee Letter from the National Director for Primary Care and Community Services at NHS England relating to the Committee’s Twenty-first Report on Fixing NHS Dentistry, 26 November 2025

Parliament page

27 Mar 2025 To committee Letter from the Interim Permanent Secretary of the Department of Health and Social Care and the Chief Executive Officer at NHS England relating to a follow up on the oral evidence session held on 13 February 2025 on Fixing NHS Dentistry, providing updates on “Golden Hellos, Rebasing contracts and contract reform, 18 March 2025

Parliament page

13 Feb 2025 To committee Letter from the Interim Permanent Secretary of the Department of Health and Social Care and the Chief Executive Officer at NHS England relating to the modelling error in the plan to reform NHS Dentistry, 11 February 2025

Parliament page