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The directors of dentistry are a very important group of individuals who work closely with my officials. As you know, there is one in each health board, which is important, because they have oversight of what is happening in their areas and can feed that directly back to the Scottish Government dental team.

I have engaged directly with them as a group on two occasions, once in a Zoom—or Teams—meeting and once in person at one of their regular get-togethers. I think, Tom, that you meet them—

That does not mean that the rest of us do not have regular meetings with the directors of dentistry in between. Indeed, when I was, as I mentioned earlier, in the Borders, I had two specific meetings with the director of dentistry and discussed how they are looking at this issue not only at high-street level but within the hospital. I have also engaged with Dumfries and Galloway, Highland and others. We have on-going, regular meetings with the directors of dentistry; indeed, I started by saying that they are key in giving us information from a local level.

Public dental services are a very important part of our dental tapestry in Scotland and, as you highlighted, they provide emergency support. In areas where there has been an issue with high-street dentistry, we have worked closely with health boards by working directly with the public dental service. I can reference NHS Shetland and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde in that regard. We are considering how we can support them, whether it is providing funding for additional dentistry support or supporting them in other ways.

That is the work that we have been doing to date, and it will continue with the new budget. As part of the funding in the new budget, £100 million has been set aside to support entry into primary care, and we will look to spend it in dentistry to support access.

That is where my portfolio intersects with different areas. Family nurse practitioners are doing amazing work in deprived areas in supporting new mums and young mums with various elements of their healthcare, as well as income and various other things. Following on from what Tom Ferris said, the introduction of a toothbrush to the baby box, which people asked for previously, is an important recognition of the importance that the Scottish Government places on healthcare and ensuring that children, young people and their families are much more aware of the importance of cleaning their teeth.

I will touch on payment reform, part of which has involved listening to what dentists have been saying about preventative work. As Tim McDonnell referred to, it is a matter of allowing dentists to spend more time with their patients to ensure that they get the prevention message. For example, my dentist on Islay attended the Islay show with a model of a tooth to explain that. That slightly left-field prevention message is coming across, and dentists are absolutely at the core of that. I pass to Tom Ferris.

Dentists on the high street run their own businesses, and remuneration is determined by the owner of that practice. If you are talking specifically about those in the public dental sector, I ask Tom Ferris to answer.

Yes—you are on a roll.

I will reflect on that, but Tom is shaking his head.

Thank you. I recognise what you are talking about in your question. I used to manage a museum that was located in a former church surrounded by gravestones and I remember the distress caused for some people when local authorities went there to ensure that the gravestones and memorials were safe. That absolutely comes under not just the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, but the Occupiers’ Liability (Scotland) Act 1960, which ensure that employees of local authorities are given the correct protections when they are at work.

The guidelines in the regulations tie into the best practice that is already happening. I recognise that some local authorities might have concerns, but additional guidance was brought in in 2019 after the tragic loss of a young boy in Glasgow. Work was done across the board to bring in local authorities and ensure that they recognised the importance of that work. Local authorities should have an established memorial safety inspection programme, and making safe should be part of their regular work anyway.

I believe that what we are asking for is proportionate. I also believe that all the appropriate people and parties have been consulted and informed about the change.

I apologise for the slight delay in my arrival, and I thank the committee for shifting your agenda to accommodate that.

Thank you for the opportunity to return to the committee to provide an update on NHS dental services. When we last met, the Scottish Government was preparing for the introduction of significant reforms to the NHS dental payment system. I am pleased to confirm that that reform was successfully delivered, as planned, on 1 November 2023, with the introduction of a realistic package of fees for NHS dentists to better reflect the market cost of providing NHS services. The draft budget, which was announced last week, reinforces our commitment to the sector, with a 15 per cent increase in funding for primary care dental services planned for 2025-26.

The reforms have also introduced a number of clinical benefits for dentists and patients alike. The system is now more focused on preventative care, reflecting modern dentistry, and offers more clinical discretion to practitioners in a less bureaucratic environment, although I recognise that we could make further progress on that.

The primary aim of reform was to incentivise dentists to provide more NHS care and, in turn, to support patient access. One year on, the latest official statistics show that almost 4 million courses of treatment were delivered to patients between the introduction of the reforms and the end of September 2024. That demonstrates that the sector has been sustained and that high volumes of patient access are being delivered in the new system. It also reflects the conversations that my officials and I have had with dental stakeholders, who have reported a largely positive response to reform. However, I am acutely aware that localised access issues remain, and I am clear that payment reform is only the first step in ensuring the sustainability of NHS dental services.

We continue to make a range of additional financial support available to the more challenging areas of Scotland, while actively considering the long-term actions that are required to improve patient access, including those on workforce and governance. I stress that there are a number of complexities involved in addressing recruitment and access challenges. The issues that we face are not Scotland specific, and there is no short-term solution. However, I recently met the new Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and my counterpart in Wales to discuss the actions that are required to improve international recruitment pipelines, and I look forward to working with my colleagues across the UK to find solutions.

In line with our programme for government commitment, we will continue to work collaboratively with stakeholders across the sector to monitor the impact of reform over the remainder of this parliamentary session to ensure sustained and improved access to NHS dentistry for the people of Scotland.