Speeches by Kinnock.

“By 1 April 2026. We will do that every year, and one of the key points of the consultation that we launched yesterday is about how we embed the 700,000 in the NHS contract.”

“The data starts to come in from May, because it is a month-by-month process. We will have that data and be able to publish an update on it over the course of the summer, so there will be publication of the performance of each ICB against the targets that we have set by the end of the summer.”

“I would not agree that there has been a delay. We launched the 700,000 programme on 1 April, and it is happening. Every ICB was given specific targets for the contribution to the additional 700,000 that needed to be made, and we are now closely monitoring the performance of each ICB against those targets.”

“I look forward to having that discussion.”

“You are right: one fundamental principle is around devolution and empowering people who are at the coalface, in terms of making decisions about their local community. The best people to make decisions about the local community are people who are rooted in that local community. The days of us sitting in an ivory tower i…”

“Yes, that is absolutely what I have just said. The sequencing is that we have to now get the final financial envelope for the remainder of this Parliament for dentistry. In parallel to that, we are working on the analysis of what the payment model for the NHS dentistry contract should be—I am sure the officials can sha…”

“I think that, generally speaking, people can see that there is a very robust principle underpinning the tie-in proposal, namely that if the British taxpayer invests £200,000 in educating and training a dentist, that dentist should do some work on the NHS. I do not hear many people arguing with that principle. What they…”

“On tie-ins?”

“Got it—thank you very much, Chair. When we came into Government a year ago, we inherited a system of NHS dentistry that was on its knees. One of the most shocking statistics that I uncovered when I first started looking at the brief was that the biggest cause of children aged five to nine being admitted to hospital in …”

“On tie-ins?”

“I am Stephen Kinnock, the Minister of State for Care in the Department of Health and Social Care and the MP for Aberafan Maesteg.”

“It was £400 million the year before.”

“As things stand, virtually all dentists are self-employed, so it would be a big shift to go to salaried dentists. I want to make it clear that, when it comes to fundamental contract reform, we are not ruling anything out at this stage. We will look at all sorts of different ways of improving the current situation, but …”

“Dental funding is ringfenced.”

“A percentage.”

“That is his resting face.”

“Do you mean within the tie-in or within the contract reform?”

“It will need to be negotiated and agreed with the BDA.”

“The consultation on the survey closed on 16 June, and we are now going through those statistics. I am very keen to get a conclusion as rapidly as possible, because if we can put that information together with the financial envelope, we can go into contract reform with all the basic information we need—both your costs a…”

“Sadly, they are not. We have 36,000 registered dentists in the country, but only about 10,500 full-time equivalents are working in NHS dentistry. There is clearly a gap. The British taxpayer invested £200,000 in every single one of those 36,000, or at least the ones who were educated and trained in the UK. We believe i…”