To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 7 March 2007, Official Report, column 2098W, on dental services, how many dentists were operating on open NHS contracts in Somerset in each of the last 10 years, broken down by primary care trust. (135262)

Data on the number of NHS dentists in Somerset from 31 March 1997 to 31 March 2006 are available in Annex E of the NHS Dental Activity and Workforce Report England: 31 March 2006, which is available in the Library.

The report, published by the information centre for health and social care, is also available at:

http://www.ic.nhs.uk/pubs/dwfactivity.

Information on the dental work force under the new dental contractual arrangements, introduced on 1 April 2006, is published at every quarter by the information centre for health and social care. These data are not comparable with the historical data in the link above. The latest information available is as at 31 December 2006 by the new primary care trusts (PCT) boundaries (PCT boundaries as at 1 October 2006) published on 23 March 2007—NHS Dental Statistics for England Quarter 3: 31 December 2006 and is available in the Library.

The report, published by The Information Centre for health and social care, is also available at:

http://www.ic.nhs.uk/pubs/dental06q3.