§ Lord Colwynasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether the underfunding of NHS dentistry since 1980 is now having a serious effect on the new NHS dental contract; and whether there are any plans to extend the current negotiations on direct reimbursement for business rates to other practice expenses, which will help alleviate the current problems of practitioners in high cost areas.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Baroness Hooper)NHS dentistry has not been underfunded since 1980. Dentists' net income has gone up in real terms by 20.5 per cent. since 1979. In addition, dentists receive full reimbursement of all NHS practice expenses.
The new contract has attracted over 5.5 million patients in England and Wales in the first seven weeks and the British Dental Association has carried out a survey which concludes that "the public should have no difficulty in finding an NHS dentist in any part of the country".
There are no plans to extend the scheme for direct reimbursement of business rates to include other practice expenses.