To ask the Minister of Health (i) to detail his plans to review and implement changes to the remuneration policy for NHS dentists with a view to reducing them leaving health service dentistry provision; and (ii) for his assessment of the reduction in the number of dentists who provide such treatment.

The need for dental reform has been acknowledged for a number of years, however, the pandemic, followed by the absence of an Executive has impacted progress in this area.

Most recently, efforts have been focused on addressing the immediate access issues patients are experiencing and establishing options to support the sustainability of dental practices while reform is progressed. This has resulted in the £9.2 million additional investment for 2024/25, which was announced on 27 March 2024.

This investment includes £4.3m for a 30% enhancement to the fees associated with filings, extractions and root canal treatment which are some of the most frequently claimed fees and clinically beneficial treatments.

I am conscious of the developments in the rest of the UK, with Scotland, England and Wales adopting diverging models of remuneration. Officials are liaising with their counterparts in each region to monitor the impact of these models and assess the suitability of adopting similar approaches in Northern Ireland.

In each of the last 5 years, the Department has followed the recommendations made by the Review Body on Doctors' and Dentists' Remuneration (DDRB) alongside an additional expenses element when calculating the annual uplift to the General Dental Services Statement of Remuneration. These uplifts mean that General Dental Practitioners are currently being paid 20.47% more per Item of Service than they were in 2019.

In addition to these uplifts, in 2022 a permanent 25% enhancement was put in place for fees related to dentures, to reflect significant increases in costs to dental practices.

I am aware of the difficulties some patients are experiencing when trying to access General Dental Services, particularly for those who are not registered with a dentist.

In Northern Ireland, there were 363 dental practices with 1,163 dentists registered to carry out health service treatments at the end of March 2023. The number of dentists registered has increased by 13% over the last decade from 1,027 in 2013 to 1,163 in 2023. There was an increase of 1.5% in the number of dentists registered between 2022 and 2023 (17 dentists).

Between 2014 and 2023 there was an increase of 5.6% in the number of Health Service dentists per 100,000 population, with 60.4 dentists per 100,000 in Northern Ireland, compared to 42.3 in England.