To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many dental practices in (a) England and (b) Shropshire primary care trust area have removed NHS patients from their lists following the introduction of new dental contracts. (95538)

This information is not collected centrally.

Under the new system, dentists contract with their local primary care trust (PCT) to provide an agreed annual amount of national health service dental services over the course of each year. Information on the number of patients who have accessed NHS dental services within a given period will be available from later this year, but registration levels at each individual practice no longer form part of the system of remuneration.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average waiting time is for NHS dental patients referred for orthodontic treatment in (a) England and (b) Shropshire primary care trust area. (95553)

Information is not collected centrally on waiting times for orthodontic treatment in primary care. Where patients are referred for hospital orthodontic treatment, information is collected on waiting times for a first out-patient appointment with a consultant and—in the relatively few cases where a patient is treated on an in-patient basis—waiting times for admission. The most recent waiting times statistics can be found at www.performance.doh.gov.uk/waitingtimes/index.htm