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I thank Paul Sweeney for that question, as I recognise the picture that he is painting. We have to recognise, though, that dental practices are businesses, and dentists can make the decisions that they feel are appropriate in order to run them. However, my team and I are absolutely focused on ensuring that we put the right investment into the right places in NHS dentistry in Scotland to ensure that people do not have to make that very difficult choice.

Paul Sweeney raises some really interesting points. I was completely shocked when I saw the pictures of the gravestones in Glasgow with the stickers on them. I have referenced the museum that I worked in that was surrounded by a graveyard, and there are many other old graveyards across Argyll and Bute. In my role, having looked at the regulations, I have to admit that, when I visit graveyards in Argyll and Bute, I look at them with completely different eyes.

In order to ensure that we have very good burial regulations, we have worked closely with a wide range of stakeholders—that is one of the regulations’ strengths. It is important that we recognise the cultural side, too, and inspectors are part of that. They ensure that burial authorities, which are likely to be local authorities in the main, are following the right procedures, and appropriate ones for what Paul Sweeney described as a key part of our culture in Scotland. The regulations and the inspection regime will ensure that we and the burial authorities have much better understanding and knowledge of what is appropriate.

We are clear in the regulations that, if a local authority is looking at a specific graveyard, it needs to publicise that as best it can, whether that is through social media or in newspapers, to ensure that people know that it is likely that it will be coming to inspect the graveyard. A lot of that should already be clear in the regulations.

Thank you, convener. I will simply move the motions and propose that the committee recommends that the regulations be approved.

Motions moved,

That the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee recommends that the Burial (Management) (Scotland) Regulations 2025 [draft] be approved.

That the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee recommends that the Burial and Cremation (Inspection) (Scotland) Regulations 2025 [draft] be approved.—[Jenni Minto]

Motions agreed to.

That is still our intention, but, given the current financial climate, we have been focusing on ensuring that we can stabilise dentistry in Scotland and that we have the right workforce. That commitment is still our intention.

Dentists can deregister patients. I am not quite clear about the timeframe, but Tom Ferris can explain.

Carol Mochan and I have a lot of conversations about inequalities, and I agree strongly with her that we need to focus on ensuring that inequalities are reduced.

As I highlighted in response to an earlier question, although I do not want to see any gap at all, the inequality gap is the lowest in almost 15 years. In 2010, it was 32.2 per cent—it is now down to 23.5 per cent. Can we go further? Yes, we have to go further, and we are investing in dental health support workers, who go specifically into deprived communities.

I highlighted the dental caravan in NHS Tayside—I had never before met two people who so enjoyed the work that they did, and they recognised the importance of that work. There are various elements of work that are doing well, but I take on the challenge that Carol Mochan has given me, which we discuss regularly. I will bring in Tom Ferris to speak further on that.

I recognise that things have changed dramatically since 2017-18, when the oral health improvement plan was set in motion. The important thing to note is that that was very much an evidence-based piece of work to understand exactly what was needed. There were a number of recommendations, and many elements of them have been delivered through the payment reform.

As Tom Ferris has discussed, there has been a focus on preventative care. We also note the importance of continuing to provide the full range of treatment. In the payment reform, we have reduced the number of categories that people can claim against, but there is still the full range of treatments. I believe that the evidence that we have given so far is that payment reform is the foundation or underpinning of the other developments that we must make, both in reform and in investment.

There has been a range of governance proposals regarding NHS boards. In including the directors of dentistry, we have been cognisant of that. We have also been monitoring clinical quality, which is very important. We work with Healthcare Improvement Scotland on that.

We are still considering the use of the dental team and where it is right to fit that. The oral health improvement plan underpins the work that we continue to do on workforce, which we view as the key focus. There is also the matter of governance of dental practices.

You asked whether we should review the oral health improvement plan. I do not believe that now is the right time to do that. We have done a lot of work to stabilise dental services, and we need to keep the focus on that. I have been speaking to my officials about workforce, and that is where we need to focus our efforts to ensure that we get the right number of dentists, dental therapists and hygienists in Scotland and that we can give them the right training. That is where we should be focusing, rather than going back to the sector at this point.

That is a key question with regard to what we are doing. It also relates to the number of spaces on university courses. I think that you will remember that, during the pandemic, we lost about 180 people because they did not get their practical experience; we are playing catch-up in that regard. That all falls into health workforce planning. We have conversations about that. It is also recognised that there are a lot of women in dentistry, and they might have different work patterns. We have to pull in all that information.

Generally, staff planning for health does not fall under my remit, but I would be happy to come back with a specific response to your question. We talk about workforce planning regularly to ensure that we have the right profile in dental teams. That ties in closely to Emma Harper’s questions about people working to the top of their qualification and how we can work across the UK to get more people into dentistry and working at the right levels.

That ties in with our work with the other three nations on ensuring that we get that pipeline of dentists. My view is that I cannot imagine a better place to work than Scotland, and I know that certain practices have been very good at attracting dentists. I appreciate what Brian Whittle said about the number of international dentists coming to Scotland and the impact on their home countries, but I should say that I have had the privilege of meeting five dentists from India who chose to work in the Borders. They wanted to come to Scotland, because they saw it as an opportunity.

We have to ensure that we provide the right opportunities, but it is also important that we give dentists who are either coming out of university in Scotland or coming from an international country the right support once they are qualified. That is part of the work that we have been talking about with regard to next year’s budget and ensuring that, as Tom Ferris indicated, we have the right support in place for dentists and dental therapists in these areas so that they are able to enjoy living and working in Scotland, which I am sure they will.