Speeches by Hatton.

“We have discussed in quite a lot of detail the initial contract changes that were made in 2022, dissected in quite a lot of detail the recovery plan, and talked about what success they have had. I think we all agree that, in many ways, they have fallen short of what we want. How are we learning from the shortcomings as…”

“But it is a bit worrying that none of them has, if we accept that it would help in some areas.”

“It is a really helpful answer. I have one final point. You are basically saying that the shift towards the ICBs leading on this is welcome and that it is better done at ICB level than centrally. With that in mind, what work is going on to ensure that ICBs that want to pursue this, where they have a very rural or large …”

“I completely appreciate that the point of the vans was not to fix all our problems; it was to address a very specific problem for a very specific demographic. It seems that there is a consensus here that the van policy pursued by Ministers in the previous Government did not provide particularly good value for money, so…”

“My understanding is that it looks like there was a bit of a disagreement between Ministers in the previous Government and NHS England as to whether dental vans provided good value for money. Amanda, is it your understanding that Ministers wanted this, but there was little in terms of a value for money argument to defen…”

“Yes. I would like to move on to another segment of the recovery plan: the idea of dental vans, which were specifically to deal with rural, coastal areas that may not have the infrastructure in place to appoint dentists soon. These vans would help to plug that gap and drive up health outcomes in those areas. As far as I…”

“It would also be helpful to have some clarity that those posts are going to where the need is most acute. You have offered us reassurance today, but further clarity there would be appreciated. Finally, on the golden hello scheme, as has been touched on by Members here today, dentistry has been in crisis for many years.…”

“My constituent is a sergeant stationed at Bovington army camp in Dorset. My concern is that that is an area with the kinds of problems that this scheme is meant to address; there are vacancies for NHS dentists that go unfilled for a very, very long time, and it is a rural area, so when that becomes a problem you really…”

“Okay. As it stands, not a single dentist practice in my constituency is taking on new adult NHS patients. One of my constituents, a sergeant stationed in a camp, has said he is unable to get himself, his wife or his three children registered, despite serving in the armed forces. How can you assure my constituents that …”

“What will success look like, in terms of the number of appointments?”

“What is the long-term sustainability of the golden hello scheme? Taking into account that we have gone from one to 39, how much longer do we want this scheme to run, and what do we see as a success story? How many appointments would we like to see?”

“We are sort of dissecting the different parts of the recovery plan; I wanted to touch on the golden hello scheme. To start, could you let us know how many dentists as of today have been appointed with the golden hello scheme, and can you give us an idea of where they are working? Obviously, at the time the NAO Report w…”

“This is the right aspiration. The Government did this very early on, and they have spoken a great deal about dentistry since the election—indeed, the Front Bench did so before the election as well. Will you go into a bit more detail about the timeframe for delivery of the additional 700,000 urgent appointments?”

“Thank you. I imagine that this will speak as much to Rachel’s constituents as to mine, but how do we make sure that those areas where there is little capacity are the places that get their fair share—which will inevitably be more, and therefore a priority—of the 700,000 additional urgent dental appointments?”

“I should start by saying that I welcome the fact that the new Government have made this pledge to try to have 700,000 additional urgent dental appointments available on the national health service. However, a constituent got in touch with me to say, “It’s shocking. The only way I can get any treatment on the NHS as it …”

“You can see where my constituent is coming from when they are faced with this bizarre situation. You are saying that in the future we will get to a point where we are starting to see some dentists take on new NHS patients, but those patients will need to know who those dentists are and to have a reliable place where th…”

“Again, with the system, in reading the NAO Report my main concern was that, some time further on, it is still not really clear who is ultimately responsible for its day-to-day operations. Of course it is with PwC, but parts of this work are being replicated by Arts Council England or Sport England, with them keeping th…”

“Given that it was delayed by more than a year, what lessons had been learned, considering that when it did go live, as Nesil has pointed out, there were a number of issues with the system?”

“I would like to build on the line of questioning taken by my two colleagues—Ms Caliskan and Mr Betts. Would you view it as good practice that the date—the timing—for setting up the loan management system moved? I appreciate that the scope widened, but do you think it is a success story for the Department that it moved …”

“The Report does say there are flaws. The Report does quite clearly stress that there are things that borrowers could not do and could not get access to.”