§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what level of funding was allocated to dental preventive care and the improvement of educational and treatment standards in each of the last five years; what is the figure for the current year; and if he has any plans to increase resources devoted to this part of the National Health Service.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeWe do not allocate predetermined funds centrally for dental preventive care to either the General or the Community Dental Services. Our method of funding dentistry means that the extent of such treatment is determined by dentists in the light of individual patients' needs.
The funding of dental education is a matter for my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education and Science. Our Department does however fund centrally postgraduate refresher training of general dental practitioners and the expenditure figures for the period requested are as follows:
£ thousands 1979–80 145 1980–81 182 1981–82 208 1982–83 256 1983–84 262 1984–85* 277 * Estimate. The improvement of treatment standards is a matter for the dental profession though the Government has a role to play through the monitoring undertaken by the dental reference service and the dental estimates board.