§ Peter BradleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what was(a) the average annual income and (b) the average working week of dentists in (i) the NHS and (ii) private practice in the last 12 months. [9259]
§ Ms BlearsInformation on the working hours of general dental service dentists is not routinely collected.
For dentists national health service income, the information regularly available is for payments by the Dental Practice Board for gross fees paid to dentists, but there is no corresponding data on hours worked. For private work, the available information is from the annual Inland Revenue survey of income and expenses. A survey carried out by the Office of Manpower Economics (OME) in March 2000, provides some limited data on this area. The survey reported:
The average number of hours worked for single handed dentists at 43.1 hours per week.Full-time practitioners wholly committed to the GDS reported total gross fee earnings averaging £163,900 in the most recently completed financial year. These figures are affected by transfers of payments from associate dentists to practice owners.We estimate that the average net income for all dentists wholly committed to the GDS for the period ending 30 September 2001 would be about £65,000 after allowing for an average of £2,600 for other payments to dentists, an average expenses to income ratio for all dental work of 54.1 per cent. subsequent fee increases and the introduction of the dentists commitment payments scheme. The OME survey did not report private earnings of dentists, but using information collected by the Inland Revenue it is estimated that the average income for single-handed dentists from both GDS work and private practice would be around £70,000.