Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 3
21st Report - Fixing NHS Dentistry
Published 4 Apr 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Fixing NHS Dentistry All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
DHSC and NHSE’s modelling of what might be achieved, and how much this would cost was wrong and it took too long to identify the error, raising wider concerns about the quality assurance processes in place for such plans. DHSC and NHSE only identified an error in their assumptions about the cost of the new patient premium during preparation for our evidence session, a year since the publication of the plan in February 2024. 4 While they assured us that the error was not material to the delivery of the plan, we were concerned that something as fundamental as the cost of the plan, and the number of appointments it could deliver, was based on flawed analysis. The NAO report in November 2024, and the Health and Social Care Committee’s inquiry into NHS dentistry in March 2024, had previously raised concerns over how robust this modelling was. We heard that DHSC and NHSE have now designated dentistry a “business–critical model”, and that additional resource and quality assurance will be available in the future, but they have yet to make clear what this change will mean in practice. recommendation In their Treasury Minute response to this report DHSC and NHSE should set out how they are strengthening their own analytical capabilities in dentistry, and explain what will change in practice as a result of dentistry being designated as ‘business critical’.
From: Public Accounts Committee, 21st Report - Fixing NHS Dentistry (HC 648), 4 April 2025
Government response
Latest Treasury Minutes progress report to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Twenty-first Report of Session 2024-26
The government responded to the whole report on 4 June 2026.
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Twenty-first report from Session 2024-26
Published 18 September 2025.
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Twenty-first report from Session 2024-25
Published 10 July 2025.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government states that it "agrees with the Committee's recommendation" on each recommendation set out in the response, giving target dates for several actions and noting that dental contract reform "will take time".
- On contract reform, a realistic timetable for a new contract "will be determined by the scale of changes under consideration and following consultation". Amendments to the current contract would be expected in 2026-27, "subject to consultation and any necessary regulatory changes".
- On the dental recovery plan, NHSE is to write to the Committee in Autumn 2025 with its analysis of the main initiatives. Dental vans are excluded because the government "decided not to implement a national programme of mobile dental vans".
- On funding for 2025-26, NHSE "would also note that there has been no reduction in dental funding", and says the ringfence rises from £3,974 million to £4,104 million and is extended into 2026-27.
- On the workforce, the department will "carefully consider the outcome of the consultation" on a graduate "tie-in" and then publish its response, with a target date of Winter 2025.