To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps he has taken to improve access to dental appointments in (a) Slough constituency and (b) Berkshire.

The Government plans to tackle the challenges for patients trying to access National Health Service dental care with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to areas that need them most. To rebuild dentistry in the long term, we will reform the dental contract with the sector, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.

The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including NHS dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to the integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. For the Slough constituency and Berkshire, this is the NHS Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West ICB.

ICBs have been asked to start making extra urgent dental appointments available from April 2025. The NHS Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West ICB is expected to deliver 15,454 additional urgent dental appointments as part of the scheme.

ICBs have started to recruit posts through the Golden Hello scheme. This recruitment incentive will see up to 240 dentists receiving payments of £20,000 to work in those areas that need them most for three years.