Dental Quality and Payment Reform

I wish to update the House on the implementation of the quality and payment reforms to the NHS dentistry contract. This follows the Government’s 2025 public consultation on proposals to address some of the pressing issues that dental teams face and support them to spend more time on patients with the greatest need. The first set of regulatory amendments to accompany these reforms came into force on the 1 April 2026. Today, we have laid the second set of regulatory amendments to the National Health Service (General Dental Services Contracts) Regulations 2005, the National Health Service (Personal Dental Services Agreements) Regulations 2005, and the National Health Service (Dental Charges) Regulations 2005, to support these reforms. These amendments will come into force on 23 June 2026 and will

create new long-term care pathways for patients with significant dental decay and/or significant gum disease, with improved payments to cover the costs and labour involved for dentists, and more effective, joined up care for patients, with a single patient charge;

introduce a new add-on payment for denture modifications, relining and repairs, to more fairly remunerate dentists delivering these treatments to patients;

remove existing regulatory barriers to enable an electronic prescription service in dentistry.

These reforms build on the April regulatory changes to improve access to urgent NHS dental care and support greater use of cost-effective, evidence-based prevention for children.

In addition to these regulatory changes, we have introduced a new funded quality improvement programme and are providing funding towards annual appraisals for associate dentists, dental therapists and dental hygienists delivering NHS care.

These reforms are an important step towards fundamental reform, but not the end point, and we will continue to go further before the end of this Parliament.

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