To ask the Secretary of State for Health what is the proportion of the total fees paid to dentists under the national health service which is attributable to dental laboratory costs; and what arrangements exist to ensure that such proportion is duly paid to the laboratories.

In the current scale of fees for national health service dental treatment which came into effect on 1 October 1989, approximately 18 per cent. of the total fees to be paid to dentists is attributable to dental laboratory costs. The price which individual dentists pay for laboratory-made dental appliances is, however, entirely a private arrangement between the dentist and the laboratory concerned.