Stephen Kinnock

Stephen Kinnock

Labour — Aberafan Maesteg

Speaking in the House of Commons on 1 April 2025

Debate

Access to Dentistry: Somerset

Contribution

I am pleased to confirm that I am meeting the BDA in the coming days. The negotiations are moving forward. There is no perfect payment system, and there is a need to get the balance right between ensuring that we have a viable system that does not deliver underspends in the NHS contract, which is absurd, and that we deliver as much NHS dentistry as possible to the communities and people who need it. That is a complex process and it will take some time. The Government have taken intermediate measures, such as the 700,000 urgent appointments and supervised toothbrushing, which we will work on at pace over the course of the coming financial year while also working on a radical overhaul of the contract. By the time I came into government, the Nuffield Trust was describing the state of NHS dentistry as “at its most perilous point in its 75-year history.” As of March 2024, there are over 36,000 dentists registered with the General Dental Council in England, yet there are fewer than 11,000 full-time equivalent dentists working in the NHS.

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